Flaming Leaf, Shifting Sands
by Moon Howling Banshee
Summary: Konoha gains a ninja with unique skills. Trained by Kakashi, mysteries surround her. THIS STORY IS OFFICIALLY DEAD. I REALIZED THAT I WROTE A MARY-SUE, AND I AM NOW ASHAMED OF MYSELF. IT IS NOT UP FOR ADOPTION. I AM SORRY FOR INFLICTING IT ON EVERYONE.
1. Entering the Unknown

_Author's note- Okay, this is my first fanfic, so I'd appreciate reviews if you read it. Disclaimer- any characters and elements from Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm borrowing them for fun. It'll get funnier later._

I've lived in the forest around the Leaf Village for almost seven years, developing enough skills to survive, and picking up jutsu by watching the ninja practice. Several times, people have found the signs of my presence and sent ninjas into the woods after me, but they've never found me. I've finally gathered enough courage to go into the village and ask the Hokage-the leader of the village- if I can enroll in the Academy and train to become a ninja.

I'm waiting until the morning to go in, as sneaking around isn't exactly conducive to trust. I know that I'm capable of being a ninja, but I have no way of knowing if I'll gain permission. If she's uncertain about allowing me, I'll ask for a trial by combat. I know that I'll win, using jutsu or not. I have several other ways of fighting, all of them effective. I can control the elements, even up to the extent of making fire come out of my body parts, I can take a person down from the inside by hitting pressure points, I can communicate through thoughts, and I have a Sharingan, a Mangekyo Sharingan, and a Byakugan. I have other kekkai genkai, (bloodline limits) so I'm almost untouchable in a fight. I can use my water control to heal injuries, and I have some water from the Pool of the Spirit of the Moon, that can heal any injury except death. I've taken my control of the elements to the next level, allowing me to control metal, the fluids and chakra in another body, and to create and manipulate lightning. My manipulations don't use chakra, which is a useful thing, I guess. My names are Torabaru, which means Trouble, or Denja, which means Danger.

My mother, who gave me these names, had the ability to know what a person would be like in their life, and named me for what I would turn into. I have long, reddish-brown hair, mossy green eyes, and a tall, slender body. I carry around two large containers of water, fitted to my back, one crossing from my left shoulder, curving around to have the cork above my right hip, while the other one is opposite it. My small, precious flask of Spirit Pool water is in a container made of diamond that I pulled up from the earth and formed into a hollow, flattened sphere. It hides between the two large flasks of water, which are leather-covered soft plastic. I have but one purpose in life- become a ninja and make myself a useful person.

I woke up on the morning when I was going to civilization, already doubting my choice. I shook off my doubts, opened the earthen opening to my cave and walked toward the gate of the village. I entered without mishap, and made my way toward the Hokage's dwelling. I was stopped at the door by two ninja, one of which stepped forward and said, "What's your business here, stranger?"

"I have a request to put before the Hokage." They stepped back, after directing me to stay there, and conversed in low voices. I didn't even have to strain my hearing to listen in.

"What do you think? She certainly looks unthreatening, although her clothes are strange. I wonder what they're made of? They're different colors, but the fabric looks the same."

"I say that we let ANBU search her, then, if no weapons are found on her, we tell Lady Tsunade about her and her message."


	2. Interrogation

"I agree. Well, if she chooses not to cooperate with us, we'll have to use force."

They walked back to me and relayed their decision. "That's fine with me." They fell into step on either side of me, guiding me toward a small, unobtrusive, almost unnoticeable building on the edge of town. They rapped on the door, and a small window opened in it. "What do you need?"

"This girl wanted to talk to the Hokage, but we want you to search her and make sure that she isn't dangerous. She's in your charge now; we need to get back to the Hokage in case she needs us."

They disappeared, leaving the eye at the window looking very disgruntled. The eye disappeared, the door swung inward, and a long arm beckoned me inside. I took the two steps necessary to clear the doorjamb, the door slammed shut, and an arm shoved me toward a small hallway. It hurt, and my first reaction was to growl, but the chakra limiters in the wall rendered jutsus ineffective, and I suck at taijutsu, so growling wasn't a good idea. I followed the directions, with guiding touches on my back or shoulders indicating which direction I was supposed to take when we came to a branch in the path. We finally finished our trek in a small, circular room with three chairs in an arc facing another chair, this one with cuffs for holding the wrists and ankles. The woman pointed me toward the chair, made me sit down in it, and clamped the cuffs tightly around my wrists and ankles. She slipped off down a corridor, then came back almost instantly. She unlocked the cuffs and had me stand up, the directed me to take off my backpack and two water sacks. I put them on the ground facing downward, and made the Spirit Water and its holder slip down into the earth. She grabbed my sack, and, after re-fastening me in the chair, she disappeared down the hallway again. I heard her footsteps echo down for several hundred feet, then dissipate. I shut my eyes to activate my echo-sight and made a small series of clicks in the direction of the door, then listened to the echoes filter back to me, painting a vivid picture of the tunnel and the room at the end. I saw several people in it, one of them the woman, and the other two a tall man in black, with two rough scars running across his face, the other a smallish woman with purple hair and a semi-long trench coat covering most of her body. I poured my consciousness toward the room, listening to their thoughts, and opened my eyes, removing the echo vision. The three in the room were looking through my backpack, being careful and wearing gloves. I kept my mind in theirs, but strained my hearing in their direction, allowing me to hear and see inside the room.

"Where are her weapons? I don't see any in here, do you, Rikakiana?"

"I don't, Anko. Do you see any, Ibiki?" The two women looked expectantly at the man, who was feeling around in the bottom of the pack. I chuckled to myself. They'd never find my weapons, which were made of metal. When I don't need them, I form them into thread-thin strings and use them to give form to my backpack and make the parts of the straps that go over my shoulder firm, but not cutting. The pack was made of the same 'cloth' as my shirt and tunic. It isn't even cloth. My mother made my shirt, and I made the tunic. They're made of human hair, which has to obey the will of the body it comes from. Every time my shirt gets a rip in it, some of the hair from my head snakes around and seals it up, which leads to the red streaks in the otherwise black shirt. In a few more years, the shirt will be red with black streaks, not the other way around. My entire family made my backpack for me, and they willed it to be indestructible. The man turned the pack inside out and shook it several times.

"Either she's really lucky, really good at jutsu, or she has her weapons hidden on her person, because there is nothing usable as a weapon in here. What else was she carrying, Anko?"

"A small canteen, half full, some dried meat of some unidentifiable origin, a small collapsible pot, a coil of string, a roll of white cloth suitable for bandages, and a plain gold ring with the name Kiora written in script on the inside. I don't know if that's her name or the name of a treasured person, but she doesn't have many things. In a small pouch sewn to the inside of the bag she has thirty ryō. In a bag that was on the bottom of her pack, she had a few pieces of paper, some pencils, an eraser, and a pen. She also has a worry stone with a strange symbol almost worn off of it because of rubbing. I think that we need to go talk to her, then, you, Ibiki, will need to leave the room so that we can search her."

"I don't get it. Why do I have to leave the room?"

"She's a _girl_, Ibiki. To do a thorough search, we need to have her undress. Following the logic?"

"Yikes. I forgot about that. Well, let's go talk to her. With any luck, we'll get straight answers out of her. I'm curious about her weaponry and those two large sacks you said she had, Rikakiana."

They pushed my few possessions back into my pack and walked toward me. I relaxed against the chair and closed my eyes. When they walked through the portal, I felt their surprise at my calm demeanor. I heard the man put down my bag and walk toward me. "Hey, are you awake?"

"Of course I am. This isn't exactly a feather mattress." I opened my eyes in time to glimpse a grin.

He loomed over me and asked, "Where do you carry your weapons?"

"Hand me my backpack and you'll see. Word of honor, I won't attack."

"We already searched the pack and didn't find anything."

"That's because you don't know where to look." He shrugged, unlocked my right hand, and held out my bag. I touched the straps, the bottom, and the panel that rested against my back, then opened my fist and showed them the handful of senbon needles that I had pulled from the weave.

"Is that all of them?"

"No. Do you want me to remove all of them?"

"Yes, do." I ran my hand down each side, pulling the metal from the weave. When I had all of them removed, it came to a tidy thirty-five.

"Where did all of those come from? They weren't there before."

"Yes, they were. They were thinner than a thread, giving the pack its shape and its ability to hold a lot of heavy items if I need it to." I focused my power, clenched my fist, and the pile of senbon on the floor disappeared, leaving a pile of glistening threads. The man reached down to them, picked up a handful, and let it slide through his hand. He whistled.

"If we could teach our ninja to do this, it would make missions so much easier. Would you be willing to teach it?"

"If it wasn't a kekkai genkai, then I would be happy to teach others how to do it, but only my maternal grandfather's clan could do it, and I'm the last of that line."

"Which clan was that?"

"It came from the Land of Water, and my grandfather was the last person to leave the hollow in a mountain's heart where they lived. He left just ahead of a massive cave-in that made the entire top of the mountain fall flat and the entrance seal off. The clan is dead, because they only had one exit and the only people with the kekkai genkai to clear the earth away were babies."


	3. Cursemark?

"Wait, different people had different kekkai genkai in the clan?"

"Yeah. Different people could control different elements. Some could control fire, others water, others wind, and others earth. My grandfather was the single one born every other generation who could control all four. The ability to control all four is passed from a youngest grandchild to their youngest grandchild forever. The kekkai genkai always skips a generation, and when the cave-in happened, the elders told my grandfather to run while he had the chance. The water- and fire-controllers were in the part of their cycle where the parents had the kekkai genkai and the children didn't, but the wind- and –earth controllers only had babies with their abilities, except for my grandfather. He was fifteen. Ones like that are always born between the cycles. The grandparent who gave them the ability always dies when the child turns eight."

"Well, since you're the last one, what will your children have?"

"None. Because my grandfather passed it to me, my children won't have it. My youngest grandchild will inherit the entirety of my possibilities."

"Which element do you prefer using?"

"Water. It can be a weapon, or a healing instrument."

"Water can't heal wounds."

"You said that there were no weapons in my pack, and you were wrong about that, too." I clenched my fist, made some of the metal thread into a kunai, and called it to me. "Pull one of the flasks over here, would you? I'll show you that water can heal." The woman called Anko picked one up and nearly dropped it, not expecting the weight. It landed at my feet, and I twitched my fingers to release the stone cap. I tightened the muscles in my other arm to keep the water in until I needed it; pulled up my left sleeve to above the elbow, grasped the kunai in my right hand, and cut a long, neat slit in my left forearm. I dropped the knife, pulled enough water out of the flask to coat my hand with an aura of an inch, and corked it back up. I pulled the water around my right hand, and thought of healing. The water took on a blue-white glow, and I moved my hand down to cover the cut on my arm. The three ANBU ninja watched in surprise as the wound sealed up, grew new skin, and didn't even leave a scar. The woman who first saw me, Rikakiana, looked skeptical. "How do we know that you don't heal that quickly normally?"

"If you doubt my ability, then you give yourself a cut and I'll heal it. I'll use any water you want me to, if you suspect this water." She nodded and walked off down another hallway. I heard her pour a cup of water. She padded back to us, pulled a knife out of her belt, and cut the ball of her thumb. She muttered a curse as the blood spattered out, then growled, "If you can heal, do your stuff." I called to the water in the cup, covered the fingertips of my right hand, and filled it with healing power. I placed my fingertips over the cut. It stopped bleeding, sealed over, and grew perfect new skin in a very literal two seconds. She gasped and pulled away, annoyed at being proven wrong.

The man, Ibiki, chuckled. "Well, Anko, Rikakiana, I personally see no threat in her. Her personality seems more suited to healing than fighting. Rikakiana, you're no longer objective and unbiased about her. Anko, I'm trusting you to search her. If you find anything strange or threatening, call for Inoichi. He'll back you up." He steered the other woman out of the room and shut the door behind them. Anko reached over and unlocked my three remaining shackles.

"If you had wanted to, you could've removed these, right?"

"True, but I figured that it was better to seem a little helpless."

"It didn't work. Well, stand up and take your clothes off. I have to make sure that you don't have any more weapons."

"To be honest, I have some that it's impossible to take away from me or make me put down."

"What are those?"

"My hands and feet. I know that pressure points on the human body that immobilize, but fighting without using pressure points is hard. I haven't used the knowledge in years, but I still have it."

"Well, if you decided to become a ninja, you'd be a dangerous enemy."

"Actually, my reason for coming to the village is asking the Hokage if I can enroll in the Academy. Would you consider putting in a good word for me?" As we were talking, I pulled my tunic off, then told the red hairs from my head that ran down the middle of the front of the shirt to part. The shirt fell open and I shrugged out of it. I pulled my leggings off and stood in only my underwear and breast band. Anko walked quickly around me, found no weapons, then zeroed in on the cursemark my mother gave me just before she died. It gives me a powerful weapon, but, thanks to the Spirit Water I used to seal it and heal the damage it did to me, I can control it perfectly. It looks like a three flame -the points on the flame facing out- tattoo that spins slowly when I'm calm, and increases in speed as I get angry. If I'm nervous or frightened, it stops spinning. The part that makes it a curse is the fact that if I get angry enough bloodlust fills me. The bloodlust even affects my eyes. They change in a pattern of green-ice blue-red-amber-brown-gray-black. Before my eyes turn brown, I can still control myself, but once they switch from amber to brown, if I'm mad at you, you had better run. There is a benefit to the bloodlust- if I let enough of it out to change my eyes to red any and all wounds on or in me are healed instantly. When the bloodlust is active, a single, blood-red circle appears in the middle of the circle of flames. When my eyes turn grey, the only way I can keep from killing someone is by drinking eight drops of blood, either mine or someone else's. Anko reached over and touched the mark. "Is this a cursemark?"

I decided to lie to her, reading her worry and fear of curse-marks in her thoughts. "No, it's a tattoo that my mother used to figure out my mood when I was a kid. See how it's spinning slowly? That's because I'm calm and happy."


	4. Battle: On

She nodded and mentally sighed in relief. "Well, you don't seem dangerous, so get dressed again and I'll take you to the Hokage. She should grant your request. We don't have such an influx of really skilled people wanting to enroll that we can turn them down." I pulled my shirt, leggings, and tunic back on, then bent down, picked up the flask of water that was by my feet, and carried it over to the other one. I knelt down, called my flask and water up from the ground, and hid it in its place between the two large canteens. I swung them up onto my back, then put my backpack in the hollow between them. Anko gestured for me to follow her. We walked quickly to the door that led to the outside, then headed toward the Hokage's residence. Anko led me through a door, then told me to stay put while she went to talk to the Hokage. I extended my hearing and my mind to allow me to listen in on them. She went through a door, and I saw through her eyes a beautiful woman. She knelt and spoke. "Lady Hokage, a girl came into the village this morning and requested a meeting with you."

"She came this morning and you're only now telling me?"

"We needed to ensure that she wasn't a threat to the village. She seems relatively harmless, but she wants to enroll in the academy and become a Hidden Leaf shinobi. I recommend that you let her, but test her first. If she graduates, I think that it's best if Kakashi trains her."

"I'll take those suggestions. Tell her that I want to test her battle skills. Take her to the chunin exam arena, and then get Hiashi, Kakashi, Naruto, Neji, Sakura, Kiba- tell him to leave Akamaru at home- Shikaku, and Iruka. Iruka, Kakashi, Hiashi, and you will join me in the viewing stands. I want the girl to fight Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Sakura, and then Shikaku. Tell them all not to kill her, and tell her to avoid killing. If she can defeat three of them, then she passes. Even if she fails at fighting Naruto, we'll let her keep going. Tell Naruto to keep the Nine-Tails in check- don't let its chakra out."

"Got it. Well, I'd better get moving." I pulled out of her mind and switched my hearing back just as she slammed the door. She walked toward me, smiling. "I've got good news for you. The Hokage agreed to let you enroll at the Academy- if you can defeat three or more of the opponents she set for you." She led me toward a large arena near the edge of the village. Along the way, we passed a tall man with long, black hair and nearly white eyes. "Lord Hiashi, Lady Hokage requests your presence in the chunin exam arena viewing area. If you see Iruka, Kakashi, Shikaku, Neji, Naruto, Sakura, or Kiba along the way, relay the request, please. If you see Kiba, tell him to leave Akamaru behind."

"Will do, Anko." He shot off toward the arena, and we continued walking in a slightly circuitous path toward the arena. Anko spotted two men with spiky ponytails standing at a railing, one leaning back against it, one resting his forearms on it and looking down at the village. "Iruka, Shikaku! Get down here!" Their heads snapped around and they flitted down to us. "Lady Hokage wants you down in the exam arena. Have you seen Kiba, Neji, Naruto, Kakashi, or Sakura around?"

"I saw Hiashi talk to Neji and Kiba a few minutes ago. They headed toward the arena. Kakashi's at the memorial stone, Naruto's at Ichiraku's, and Sakura's at the flower shop. "

"Well, could you head straight to the arena? The Hokage's waiting."

The nodded and walked toward the large arena. We cut a sharp left and went toward a small meadow, where a large black stone reared its head to the sun. A young man with a shock of silver hair knelt in front of it. When he heard our footsteps, he looked up.

"Who's this, Anko?"

"You know, I never did find out her name. What is it?"

"Torabaru is my full name. My family called me Tora. I don't particularly care which one you call me."

"Well, Tora, it's nice to meet you. What do you need, Anko?"

"Take Tora to the exam arena, okay? Lady Hokage wants you in the stands and her on the floor."

"I guess. Why?"

"You'll see." Anko disappeared, leaving me with a man who hid most of his face. He motioned for me to follow him, and we fell in step together.

"So, do you know why Lady Hokage wants you in a battle arena?"

"I do, but I'm not supposed to know yet, and I'm not much of a talker, usually."

"Well, looks like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Are you always this growly?"

"Not normally, but when I'm asked to tramp around with no good reason offered, I get in a bad mood."

"So, it's reasons that you need. What does your name mean? I've never heard of one like it."

His sudden change of topic threw me for an instant, but I decided to answer it. "That's the one personal question that I'll answer. Torabaru means Trouble. My family also called me Denja- dangerous."

"Interesting." He finally quit talking, and we walked on together in companionable silence. When we came to the entrance to the arena, he said, "This is where we part. You go that way"-he pointed at a tunnel leading to daylight- "and I go this way." He pointed at a flight of stairs. We split up, each of us following our own path. I emerged from the tunnel into the broad daylight of a circular ring with trees and shrubs growing around the perimeter. I knelt in the shadows, pulled my pack off, and went through it, removing all of the metal. I had lied to Anko and Ibiki- there were fifty senbon needles holding my bag together. I pulled most of the metal out of my shirt, tunic, and leggings, leaving enough to swarm into place as a plate of metal to protect me. All in all, I had enough metal to make three hundred senbon needles or one hundred kunai knives. I also had whatever metal I could pull from the earth in the time I had. I reached my sensors out, calling to the metal, pulling it out of the ground in threads. I pulled an amount out that equaled the amount that I already had, and converted it to kunai. I sat back and relaxed. I was ready for my first opponent.

I heard footsteps shuffle across the ground as I sensed the vibrations in the earth. I opened my eyes and saw a tall, goofy-looking kid with spiky blonde hair and vivid blue eyes looking down at me. He muttered _Humph_ and stalked away. I heard him say under his breath, "I don't know why they pulled me away from my ramen just to make me fight a puny little girl."

I called, "I may be a girl, but I am not puny, nor am I little. If you think that way, we might as well get this match started." I rose from my sitting position, letting the sun warm and loosen my muscles. I heard the thoughts from the people in the stands.

_This is going to be a short fight._

_The girl stands no chance of winning._

_Even Neji couldn't beat Naruto, and I failed!_

_Short fight._

_Kiba and Akamaru working together couldn't stop him._

_Tora's going to win._

_I'm betting on Tora._

These last two thoughts came from Kakashi and Anko, respectively. I grinned. Kakashi was around me for two minutes and he got a judge of my abilities. I insinuated myself as part of his mind, and asked, _Why do I think that?_

_Because she is aware of herself, she has the balance and mobility of a fighter, and Anko said she's a really tough kid who's lived in the forest alone for several years._ I left his mind and focused on the battle at hand. I switched my vision from normal to chi point-viewing. Anko dropped down to the floor. "The rules are very simple- there are no rules. No killing, just knock your opponent out or down enough times that he or she can't get up. Okay, fight!"

She jumped back to the box as I took a hunters crouch. I twitched my fingers, calling to the earth beneath our feet, asking it to help me and slow him. It gripped his feet, sucking on him, keeping him tied to the earth. I slipped sideways, making him move to keep me in sight. While he was busy trying to pull his feet free, I flew in toward his back, slamming my fore and middle fingers on both hands into his chi points, immobilizing his arms first, then his legs, then his body from the neck down. He dropped like a rock. Anko dropped down and announced, "The winner of this match is Tora." She jumped back up and I attuned my hearing into the box. I heard only a few voices. Most of the people were down in a lower viewing window. I assumed that they were my next opponents. In each box, I heard the same question being directed to the member of the Hyuga clan. "Was she hitting the chakra points?"

"No, she wasn't. I don't know why he went down like that. I can't see any weaknesses in his chakra network."

I walked over to Naruto. "Sorry about that. Here, let me fix that." I tapped four points on his back, two on either side of his spine. One set was up by the edge of his lungs, the other was down by his kidneys. When I released the flow of chi back into his body, he scrambled up, eyes blazing.

"What was that? How did you do that?"

"Whoa, easy! Calm down, the match is over. I blocked your chi points, the places that act as gates to the strength that moves your body. Sorry about the pain you're feeling right now." That stopped him in his tracks.

"How did you know that I was hurting?"

"I learned how to do this by trial and error. My grandma taught me, and we got into some pretty fierce sparring sessions. I know the pain of having chi restored to a body part."

"You fought your grandmother?"

"Yeah, and she beat me almost every time. The last few times we sparred, I won because I practiced hitting a dummy at every chi point until I could do it in the dark, every chi point, no matter how fast the target was moving. She still blocked parts of my chi, but I avoided most hits. Here, eat this." I tossed him a rice ball.

"What's so special about this?"

"I've put some nutrients into it, along with some of my healing chakra. Eating it will remove the pain running through you body. Break off two bites, then save it for the rest of the contestants. They'll need it." He shrugged and walked toward the stairs. The Hyuga in the lower window swung down. He said, "You got Naruto with that fancy trick, but I'm not like Naruto."

"It'd be boring if you were. Fighting two opponents with the same fighting style one right after another? It gets old and predictable." Anko called, "Fight!" and Neji flew in. I saw the chakra flowing along his hands. He had decided to use the Gentle Fist style of fighting, trying to block my chakra points. I popped the cork on one of my flasks of water, holding it in until he got closer. He reared back to strike at my arm, but the metal in my sleeve spun together, absorbing his chakra and neutralizing it enough to give me a chance. I shot the water out, sliding it around his hands, arms, feet, and legs. I saw a blaze of chakra in time to shield myself, while keeping his arms and legs encased. I held out my hand, sucking in his chakra, draining him. He cut the tie, but it was too late. Most of his chakra was inside me, trying to revolt, but being subdued. I exerted my will over the water cocoon, forcing Neji to fall to the arena floor. I heard a thought come from him. _There's no chakra string connecting this to her! How's she doing this?_ I called to Anko. "This match is over. Neji can't get up until I let him, and as long as this match continues, he'll stay on the ground." She nodded agreement, and declared me the winner. I pulled the water back to the flask, re-sealed it, and offered my hand to Neji. "Good fight, Neji." He walked back to the observant shelf and another boy jumped down. He swaggered up to me. He wore a pale grey hooded sweatshirt and smelled like he had a ninja dog. This must be the Kiba that Anko talked about. Anko gave permission to fight, and he tried to do a Tunneling Fang maneuver on me, but I slid out of the way just in time. He clipped my sleeve, but, as with Neji, the metal that I left in my clothes protected me. He whirled around just as I sent half of my senbon needles arcing toward him- as tiny flakes of metal. They solidified just before they hit him, pinning him to the wall. Blood seeped out of the multitude of wounds on his body. He slumped against the wall. I had hit one of his chi points, making it impossible to move. I sat down and waited, wanting to see if it would wear off. He twitched several times, then relaxed and called, "I accept defeat. I'm sorry I doubted your skill." I pulled the metal out of him, causing him to wince. He fell toward the ground, but I caught him before he hit. I eased him down, then pulled enough water out of my canteens to heal him with. I passed my palm over his body, stopping up the holes and repairing the damage. When the wounds were healed, I told him, "Go get some of that rice ball from Naruto. It'll help you feel better."

"Tell ya what; I would if I could move!"

"Oops. I'll help you with that." I tapped the release point on his ribcage, allowing him the use of his body again. He stumbled toward the stairs, wondering how he had lost. My next opponent, the only girl, hopped down to the ground.


	5. Challenge: Won

I saw the worry in her eyes. Anko gave permission for us to fight, but I held up my hand. I called, "Kakashi, Neji, Hiashi, the Byakugan and Sharingan might prove helpful in watching this fight." I turned to Sakura and said, "I'll try not to hurt you." She nodded and gulped. I spun in to flaming rotation, letting heat and flames roar out of my pores. She dodged, and we went into high-speed action. I felt eyes trying to follow us, but only three pairs actually stayed with our speed. I built up eight tiny balls of lightning in my palm, and sent them homing in on her body heat signature. She skipped backwards and to the side, trying to avoid them, but I pulled up an earthen wall at knee level behind her. She tripped over it, and the lightning balls hit her. Each one scrambled different portions of her nervous system, making it impossible for her to move.

"Sakura!" Naruto's voice broke the silence. I looked down at her twitching form. I had used more lightning than I had originally thought. I pulled some spirit water from the crystal jar, opened her mouth, and ran it through her system from the small cut on her tongue. The small rip in her skin opened a path to her nerve, chakra, circulatory, chi, and muscle networks, allowing me to fix the damage. I finished, pulled the water out of her, and watched her eyes open. She backed up and dropped her weapons. "It's over. You won, Tora." She fled back to the canopy, where all of the guys looked at her questioningly. She refused to look at them. The one adult in the box hopped down. His scarred face looked strangely gentle as he stared at me.

"I understand, kid. You lived with no one watching your back, so you had to get tough to survive. You've won. Lady Hokage said that you only had to defeat three of us for her to grant your request. Well, you've done four. Why don't you give up? Fighting more is useless."

"Give up isn't in my vocabulary. What do you think the wild does if you give up? Do you think that it shows you mercy? No, it chews you up, spits you out, and leaves you for dead. Quitters don't live long." Anko yelled for us to go, and Shikaku poured chakra into a shadow jutsu, trying to pin me down and end the fight early. I pulled a huge cloud over the sun, making the day descend into darkness, reducing the effectiveness of his jutsu. I swooped in, aiming for a point above his third rib, but he wasn't there. I whirled around in time to melt his kunai just before it hit me. I called my pile of weapons, forgotten by everyone but me, into play. While Shikaku watched me, waiting for a frontal assault, he forgot to watch his back. I switched the weapons from blades and needles to ropes, binding him into a cocoon of metal. I rolled him around on the ground, dispelling the cloud cover. He stopped rolling near the wall, where Anko laughed down at us, telling me to release him, that the fight was over, that I'd won. I pulled the metal back and walked over to him. "It was well fought, but, like I told you, quitters don't live long." He nodded and jumped back into the stands. I twitched my finger at the metal, sending it up to the box. It formed small, round pellets, spelling out to the Hokage, _Did I make it?_ I heard her chuckle, then saw her motion me upward. I pulled the air into helping me jump, sending me up to the Hokage. I landed in front of her.

"You made it, you scrappy forest dweller. Well, Iruka, meet your newest student." I nodded in the direction she pointed. She then turned around and looked at Kakashi. "When she graduates, I want you to be her jonin-sensei."

"If she and the other two members of her genin team manage to pass the bell test, then of course I'll train her. I'd be happy to be her sensei." I heard him thinking, _Judging by her fighting style and nature, she won't understand the value of teamwork._ I chuckled to myself. I understood teamwork, but there isn't much room for teamwork in one-on-one fighting. Anko told me to follow Iruka, and the rest of the people dispersed. We headed toward a low, long building in the center of town. Iruka asked, "How old are you?"

I started muttering to myself, trying to figure out the years. "I've lived in the forest for eight years and I was almost seven when my family died-"

"Wait, you've been on your own since you were six? No wonder you're independent."

"Well, yeah, I had to learn early or die. By my calculations, I'm somewhere around fifteen."

"You're older than the typical Academy student, but the graduation exams are in about six weeks. I'm sure that you'll be ready. Okay, what jutsus can you use? Show me as many as you have the chakra for."

I sighed. In quick succession, I performed a Transformation, Shadow Clone, Water Clone, Image Clone, Giant Fireball, and a Shielding Wall of Rock. I looked around, saw that we were alone, and said, "I'm going to show you this, but don't tell anyone that I can do it. It's an extremely powerful kekkai genkai that will die out with me." He nodded.

My hands flew through a sequence of three hands seal unique to me and my grandmother's clan- glacier, mountain glacier, and then glacier again. A dome of ice, water, and flame formed around us, holding Iruka in. I flattened my hand, pushed outward, and made half of a fist. The dome encircled Iruka, blocking him even further into a tomb. I formed the reverses of the seals, freeing the chakra and letting it flow back into my body. Iruka looked suspiciously at me.

"What Anko said is right- if you went rogue it would be the death of the village. How many people can that dome hold?"

"The most people I've used it on is six, and that was almost too easy."

"Why did you have to use it on six people?"

"They slaughtered my family because they were afraid of me. My family lived in a village where kekkai genkai are feared. I was the inheritor of each grandparent's trait, and my family kept me hidden away. I was stupid one night, and left my hole to play with the snow that was falling. Some people from the village saw me doing it, recognized it as a kekkai genkai, and thought that it was my sister. One night, when there was a new moon, they snuck into our home and destroyed my family. They tortured my sister, trying to make her show her talents. She only had two- the Byakugan and the Sharingan. My grandparents, all four of them carrying a powerful trait, died trying to protect me, my parents, and my sister. My father never used his Byakugan and had never woken up his Sharingan, and my mother was in the skipped generation of the kekkai genkai of her parents. When I exited my hole and found my family dead, the grief nearly killed me. It took me six months to find the murderers, but at the age of seven I avenged my family. Before he died, my Uchiha grandfather saw my newly gained Mangekyo Sharingan, and made me pull my dead sister to him. He transplanted her eyes into me, saving me from going blind if I ever used it."

"You have a lot of grief in your past. I hope you find peace." I nodded, grateful. We walked to the Academy, and Iruka directed me to a classroom. I found mostly students close to my age, with a few of them some years younger, a few of them a couple of years older. I found a seat in the back row, pulled out the books in the desk in front of me, and resigned myself to several boring weeks.


	6. Graduation

Six weeks later, Iruka announced a graduation exam. Any student who passed it would qualify for genin. I immediately signed up. Six weeks of sitting in a classroom listening to someone talk was torture to me after living with my wits for so many years. When my name was called, I walked into the room, confident that I could pass. The exam was easy. They had me do a clone jutsu, a transformation jutsu, and show my skill with a kunai and shurikan. I walked past Iruka on my way out the door. He congratulated me and handed me a forehead protector. I tied it on and went into the room he pointed me toward. There I found all of the other newly made genin. I sat at an empty table and rested my chin on my arms, which I crossed in front on my body. I leaned on the table, trying to keep my mind occupied. Two other genin eventually made their way to my table. I knew them- their names were Hayaku and Minato, supposedly named after the fourth Hokage. Both of them were nice boys, even if they were pushovers. I greeted them with a wave of my hand. By this time, all of the people in my class had learned that I wasn't much of a talker, so they only said hello to me before lapsing into a conversation with each other. One of the other teachers came into the room and began reading off teams and their jonin-sensei. Finally, only Hayaku, Minato, and I were left in the room. The teacher looked up and said, "You three- your jonin-sensei is Kakashi Hatake. He wants to meet you here in one hour. Spend that hour doing anything you want, as long as you get back here in time."

Minato and Hayaku jumped up and fled the building, talking about eating. I dug into my backpack and pulled out some of my dried meat to chew on. I ate, and cast about for something to do to pass the time. I hit upon an idea, but discarded it because it took too much time and effort. I decided to get enough metal and form it into my headband as added protection for my head. I heard two sets of footsteps echo down the hall. Minato and Hayaku were running toward me. The skittered into the room and glanced at the clock.

"Whew! We made it just before the hour was up." Minato suddenly slammed into Hayaku's back, knocking the water in his cup flying. He didn't seem to notice the puddle, and I didn't care about telling them. The minutes drug on. Kakashi was late. I felt my mood getting more and more annoyed. I heard Hayaku ask Minato "Is it getting colder in here?" I was controlling the air without meaning too. I didn't really care. I heard footsteps click in the hall. A hand pulled open the door and Kakashi stepped in-right into the puddle of water on the floor, which I had accidently frozen when my mood cooled the air. He started a downward spiral and I jumped to his side.

"Sorry about that. I didn't realize that my mood was cooling the air and that the puddle was frozen."

"Do I also have you to blame for the puddle?"

"No, that was Minato and Hayaku. They played accidental crash-test and spilled some water."

Kakashi grunted and I made the room warm back up. The ice melted and I slid it out the door. Kakashi said, "Follow me," and we trooped out the door. We followed him to clearing near the edge of the city. He stopped, had us sit down in a semicircle and faced us. I moved back, uncomfortable with being in a place where attacks are hard to dodge. Kakashi said, "I'm Kakashi Hatake. Why don't you tell me about yourselves? What's your name, what do you like, what do you hate, what are your hobbies, what are your strengths, and what are your weaknesses?

"The girl on the left goes first." He pointed at me, but because I was the only girl in the group, I figured that he meant me.

"My name's Torabaru, or Tora. You can also call me Denja, but I don't care.. I enjoy the quiet and sitting in the sun, but I also enjoy testing my abilities to their limits. I dislike being told to do something without a good reason, and I dislike people assuming things about me without getting to know me. I've never really had time for hobbies. My greatest strength is the undying loyalty I offer to those who I consider my friends, but that is also my greatest weakness. I will answer one question from each of you, if you want to ask me one."

Kakashi looked thoughtful as he asked, "Why is it a weak point as well as a strong point?"

"It's a strong point because it gives me something worth fighting for, but it's a weakness because if someone that I hold precious is hurt or dying, I will protect them until I die." Kakashi nodded.

Hayaku piped up. "Where do you carry your ninja tools? I've never seen you carry them, but when you need them you always have them in your hand."

"That's easy. I carry them in the weave in my clothes, in the weave of my backpack, and on my back, in the two large flasks I have."

Minato tapped his chin as he thought. "I've heard that you can make lightning without using chakra. Is that true?"

"Yes, it is, but I won't show you because once the lightning's here, I have to use it on something or it'll hit one of my friends."

Kakashi pointed at Hayaku, who was between Minato and me. "You're next. What are your answers to my questions?"

"My name is Hayaku Sarutobi. I enjoy training and relaxing in equal portions. I dislike writing and exerting myself needlessly. My hobbies are cloud-watching and tree climbing. My greatest strength is my aim, and my greatest weakness is my stubbornness."

"Well, how about you?" Kakashi pointed to Minato.

"I'm Minato Senju. Some of the things that I like are long walks, reading, and shurikan practice. I dislike taijutsu, which is my weak point. My hobbies are playing games and gardening. My strong point is ninjutsu."

"Well, that answers my questions. Meet me back here tomorrow at thirty minutes after dawn, and don't eat breakfast. We'll be training pretty hard and if you eat, you'll get cramps. Tora, stay here. I want to talk to you." The boys got up and left, shoving each other and teasing. I remained seated, closing my eyes and listening to the sounds of nature.

"Iruka told me that you have a Sharingan and a Mangekyo Sharingan. Is this true?"

I opened my eyes. "It is, but I rarely use them. I used my Mangekyo once, when I avenged my family, and I've only used my Sharingan when sparring with my grandfather or when trying to survive in the wild. I've used it enough to make it mature, but I haven't needed it in months. I prefer to use other kekkai genkai."

"I see. You do occasionally use your Sharingan, though?"

"I only use it if I have to."

"I watched your fight with Naruto. How did you take him down? Hiashi said that you weren't using chakra or hitting chakra points."

"I hit his chi points. The chi is what allows the muscles to move. I stopped the signals between the brain and the body, making him immobile. I'm one of the rare people who can see chi points, which makes mine messed up. Most people's points are in the same places. When I see another person with chi points that are out of place, I'll know that, with training, they can see chi points too. Can I go now?"

"What do you need to do?"

"That's my business, not yours. Anyway, I can hear and smell someone coming who I'm not particularly fond of." I heard Ebisu coming. Every time he and I were around each other, we ended up fighting.

I walked back to the woods, making as little noise as possible. I heard the muffled whispers of Hayaku and Minato coming from the bushes. I said, "I know that you're there. What do you need?" They piled out of the brush.

Minato asked, "I know that there's always a test that each sensei gives his genin team. Do you know what it is?"

"Yeah. We have to get two bells. The purpose of the test is to see if we can work together as a team. If we can't, we fail the test."

He scuffed his foot in the dirt. "Hayaku and I aren't really leaders. Would you take charge of our attempts to get the bells? We'll follow you."

"We have to work as a team. Come on, I'll take you to a place where we can be alone and work on a plan of attack." I led them through the trees toward a place I occasionally use for a home base.


	7. Plotting

"A cave? It looks to small from the outside to hold one person, let alone all three of us."

"Just wait. Come on, follow me." I put my hand on the rock and slipped under the ledge. Once you got inside, the cave was large enough for fifty people to stand comfortably. I sent tiny flames scuttling for the candles around the walls and close to the ceiling.

"Time for our war council. Now, which type of jutsu is your strength? Minato, I know that you said you're good at ninjutsu. We'll need that. Hayaku, what are you good at?"

"Definitely taijutsu, with a little genjutsu thrown in for good measure. I'm okay with kunai and shurikan, but they aren't my strong point."

"You don't need to worry about ninja tools, kunai, shurikan, or senbon needles. I'll be handling those. I'll need you to make an illusion of us standing at the other side of the clearing he's going to take us to. Can you layer genjutsu?"

"Yes, I can. Why?"

"You need to layer three identical genjutsu on top of each other. He'll guess that it might be a genjutsu and try to make it release. If there are three, it'll give us enough time to move him where we want him. I'll be making weapons fly out of the trees on that side, driving him toward us. When he gets close enough, Minato, make a transformation jutsu and transform into a senbon needle. Once you do that, I'll get you into place in front of him. When that happens, Hayaku, you need to slip to the side and make a clone to run at him screaming. It'll distract him enough to let you and Minato grab the bells while I hold him from behind. When you grab the bells, we need to say that we three are one, that we're a team. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"It works for me."

"Good. Now, let's go through it with a clone or something." I formed a clone, switched it to look like Kakashi, and we started the exercise. It took us five tries to get it perfectly synchronized. When we had the routine down, I told them that, if they wanted to, they could stick around for a while. "I'm going to cook some food, and we need to get to know each other if we're going to work as a decent team." They both agreed. I walked through a small door at the rear of the cave, picked up some supplies, and came back into the main cave. I found the boys inspecting some of the designs I've put in the wall with colored stone and earth.

"Did you guys want to see me make lightning? This is a one-time offer. It won't come again."

They hovered over me as I formed a small ball of lightning on my fingertip. "You can touch it. It won't hurt you as long as it's connected to me." They reached out their fingers and brushed it. They gasped in surprise.

"It's soft and fuzzy."

"It will be until I make it leave my hand." I pushed it off my fingertip, toward the pile of wood that I had. It hit and made a small _boom_, then crackled merrily as a fire. I dusted off my hands and put a griddle over the flames. I dripped a little oil on it and spread it around. I pulled a bowl out of my stack of supplies, cracked three eggs into it, and added some flour, milk, shredded jerky, scraps of dried orange, a bit of curry, some chili pepper, and a dash of coriander. I stirred it up and placed spoonfuls of the batter on the griddle. While the first of the cakes were cooking, I cut chunks of chicken and pork, wrapped them in tin foil and clay, and generated enough fire out of my hand to cook them. I cracked open the clay, unwrapped the foil, and pulled the cooked meat out of the packing. I put the chunks in a bowl and spooned some of my special sauce in it. The sauce is a little spicy, a little sweet. I flipped the cakes over, let them finish cooking, and pulled them off the griddle. After dividing the meat into three even portions, I spooned them onto plates and piled the cakes on a plate by themselves. I handed each of the boys a plate of met, set the cakes on a table in the middle of them, gave each of us a fork, and sat down.

"The meat goes on the cakes, which you roll up with the filling inside." They dug in, making grunts of appreciation. When we had all finished eating, I leaned back and said, "Tell me about your lives. Where do you live, what are some of your memories, what are your signatures jutsus, what are your habits, are you right-handed or left-handed?"

Hayaku started. "I live in a small house on the edge of town. My favorite memories are of coming home from the Academy to the smell of my mother's cooking. My signature jutsu is something that I invented. I call it the Dancing Willow Leaf. It's good for getting behind someone and hitting them in the head. I tend to take the same walk at the same time of day and go through the same routine when I'm training. I'm right-handed. Why does that matter?"

"It might not."

Minato started talking quietly. "My home is in an apartment near the Academy. I have some good memories of playing ninja with my friends after school let out at the Academy. My best jutsu is the transformation jutsu. I have the bad habit of sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong. I'm left-handed."

"Since have one lefty and one righty, that means that the optimum formation in Hayaku on the right, Minato on the left, and me in the middle, as I can use either hand. That keeps us from accidently reaching for something and hitting a teammate. We three should be able work really well as a team."

"What are your answers to the questions you asked us?"

"I live in the woods, anywhere that I can find a cave or make one. I have some good memories of playing with my sister and training with my grandparents. My signature jutsus are my kekkai genkai- element manipulation. I've made it a point to avoid forming habits. I can use my right hand and my left hand with equal ease. Do you have any questions for me?"

"How will we know when you consider us friends?"

I sent them the same thought. _Actually, I consider you two my friends now. When I open my mind and speak with thoughts with someone, then I consider them my friends and will protect them at all costs. You can talk to me with thoughts, and I can share them with the other member of our team, so we can communicate without making a sound. Try it; it's really cool._

Minato's thoughts carried a lilting, melodic ring. _Why are the people that you consider precious protected so vigorously?_

_I've already lost one set of everyone that I hold close. It took me years to get over it. I'm not going to let that happen again._

Hayaku's thoughts were a low, soothing rumble. _How did they die?_

_They died because of my carelessness. Some things I won't share. This is one of them. The scars are too tender._ I pulled out of their minds and said out loud, "If we need to make last minute adjustments to the plan tomorrow, I'll tell you with my mind. We need to get some sleep." I shooed them out of my home, then blocked the door. I laid my body down on some soft dirt and sand and drifted off to sleep.


	8. Bell Test

The next morning, I woke up before dawn, wondering how long I would have to wait on Kakashi this time. I walked to the clearing where he told us to meet him. On the way, I went over our plan in my mind, and reached out to Minato and Hayaku.

_Guys, are you up?_ The only replies that I received were spiraling dream pictures, so I forcefully shoved my way into their minds and yelled, _HEY! Wake up!_ I felt their dreams disintegrate into sleepy fuzz.

Hayaku was the first to wake up. _Tora, was that you?_

_Of course it was. If you want time to get ready, you better get up. It's almost dawn right now._

Minato broke into our conversation. _It's almost dawn? Where are you?_

_I'm in the clearing where Kakashi told us to gather. Hurry up or you'll be late._ I left their minds and sat down, content in the stillness of the morning. I heard a single set of quiet footsteps walking toward me about thirty minutes later. My inner clock told me that Minato and Hayaku still had five minutes to get here. I read the vibrations and discovered Kakashi was the person approaching me.

"Aren't you usually late, Kakashi?"

"Do you always know who is coming?"

"Yes, I do. You answered my question with another question. That's rather rude."

"I suppose that it is. Yes, I'm usually late, but I decided to see which of my students were punctual, and which of them were late."

"Minato and Hayaku are running up the hill right now."

_Guys, don't tell Kakashi that I woke you up. It's to our advantage to keep him in the dark about some of our skills._ They came up the hill silently.

Kakashi asked, "How did you know that they were the ones coming up the hill? Even I didn't hear them."

"My ears and nose are better than yours. I've spent enough time around them that I can recognize the sound of their footsteps and their individual smells."

"Do you share the blood of the Inuzuka clan? Usually they're the ones who can do that."

"No, I don't, but, living in the woods, your senses get stronger than they might normally."

"Well, we better get down to today's training. I wasn't entirely honest with you three yesterday. We aren't training today. You three are trying to get these two bells from me." He held up two small bells. "If you don't, you'll be sent back to the Academy for more training. The only way to get these bells is to come at me with the intent of taking me out. If you don't, there is no hope at all of getting these bells. The test starts…NOW!" Hayaku, Minato and I sprang for the woods. We hit the trees at three different points and worked our way quietly toward our decided starting point. When all three of us were there, I thought, _Time to initiate Part A. Hayaku, form your genjutsu. Remember, three layered on top of each other._

_I've got it. It's play time._ I felt and saw the chakra flow out of him, sliding around to the other side of the clearing. I heard Kakashi's thoughts. _Well, they move fast for a rookie team, but just standing there won't do much good._ I left part of my will in his mind, so that I could subtly direct him to move into the place where we wanted him. I formed most of my metal into shurikan, sent them around to the other side, and asked Hayaku to make his genjutsu appear to throw them. They started moving, and I manipulated Kakashi in our direction. Occasionally, I threw a kunai or senbon at him to keep him on his toes. Kakashi finally maneuvered into position, and I activated phase B of our plan.

_Okay, Minato, time to transform._ I felt the tiny puff of wind and caught the needle, then silently flicked it out to stick into the grass a few inches from Kakashi's left side._ Hayaku, now would be a good time for that clone._ Hayaku's clone sped away from me as I exerted power over the ground under Kakashi's feet. The instant the clone exited the woods and drew Kakashi's attention, I snaked the earth up and clasped his feet in place. I mentally shouted, _Get the bells!_ I jumped out of the trees and used two water hands to place his arms in a full nelson, grabbed his hair in one hand, and held a kunai to his throat with the other. Minato popped out of his transformation- right beside the bells. Hayaku shot out of the woods and each of them grabbed a bell. The instant they broke away, I released Kakashi.

"How was that for teamwork? We three are one, a team."

"Yeah, we're a team."

"Take on one of us, and take on us all."

He smiled in approval. "You did well, you three. How did you know that the test wasn't about your ninja ability, but about your ability to work as a team?"

"Tora heard you mutter something about teamwork when she tested for admittance to the Academy."

"How long did it take you to work out the routine that you used on me? More importantly, which of you was the mastermind behind it?"

"Tora planned it out, based on our strengths and weaknesses, and it took us about fifteen minutes to practice it until we mastered it."

"Only fifteen minutes? You three must be made to work together. Good job. You're officially genin. If you keep working like that, when the next chunin exams roll around, you might just make it. Unfortunately, I only brought three lunches. I thought that, like every other team, one of you would end up tied to a post and denied food."

"Don't worry. I have plenty of food in my pack." All four of us sat down. Kakashi passed Hayaku and Minato trays of food, I pulled some leftovers out of my pack, and we started the serious business of eating. I got up, moved over a few feet, and put my back against a tree.

"Why did you do that?"

"If your back's to something solid, usually that's one less side that you have to defend."

"Is it hard to break through your defenses? I watched your fights for admittance into the Academy, and no one landed a blow. Shikaku nearly did, but you stopped him."

"All three of you are welcome to try to get through my defenses. On my word of honor, I promise to remove any paralysis I put on you. Go ahead and try. The worst thing that can happen is failure. Who knows? The three of you working together might actually land a blow. If you want to plan, I'll plug my ears and not listen." I thought, _I'll even keep my mind inside my own body._ Of course, my hearing is good enough that covering my ears does nothing. I placed my hands over my ears and shut my eyes. They moved off a few feet and started whispering.

Kakashi said, "You two worked with her. Does she have a known weak point?"

"No. As far as we can tell, she has a wall of defenses several feet thick. Do you know anything about her?"

"Iruka told me that she has a Sharingan and a Byakugan, but other than that, I don't know much. Our best bet is a three-thirds attack formation. Divide the circle of space around her into thirds, put each of us on a different dividing line, and all of us attack at once. Each of us is responsible for the third of space on our right. Well, let's try it." I stood up and moved away from the tree, as it hampered my movement. The moved to their decided thirds, tensed for a split second, and attacked. Just when they were too close to stop, I jumped. The three of them hit head on. They dropped to the ground, moaning. Kakashi got back up first. He used his painful experience as a lesson. Frontal attacks don't work on me. He suddenly seemed to disappear. I activated my Sharingan and Byakugan in time to block the chi to his arms. He tried to perform a flying twist, but, without your arms, landing after those is pretty hard. He landed on his head and did several impressive bounces. I turned back to Hayaku and Minato. They tried to come at me from opposite directions. I dropped down, grabbed their right legs, and squeezed just above the ankle. I shot my chakra up to the chi point in the middle of their backs and pressed. Their entire bodies went limp. I stood back up and dusted my fingers off.

"Any more theories about the penetrability of my defensive walls?"

"No. Would you release whatever you did to us?" I rapped Kakashi's back, slightly to either side of his spine and just below the shoulder blades. Minato and Hayaku were a bit more complicated- unblocking their chi points took five raps each. They stood up, groaning and rubbing their muscles.

"It hurts, doesn't it? All of you will be wary of attacking me from now on, if my experience taught me anything. The pain will go away in a few minutes." I tossed each of them a small ball of candy. "Eat it. It tastes like mint and will remove most of the pain from the affected areas." They looked at it dubiously, but ate the candy. Kakashi stretched and looked at the sun. "Well, we need to do some training today. We have half an hour for our food to digest, then we get down to training. Hayaku, I want you to work on your ninjutsu. Minato, work on your taijutsu. Tora, try to climb a tree without using your hands."

I chuckled inwardly. He didn't know that I've been able to do that for several years. I decided that I'd make the usual mistakes of a beginner. If I didn't, he'd find me something else to do.


	9. Unexpected Twist

I heard a set of feet come up the hill. It was a boy who looked surprisingly like Shikaku Nara. I assumed that it was his son.

"Shikamaru, what are you doing here?"

"I heard that the wonder kid from the forest was taking the bell test today. Did the team pass?"

"They did. They proved their teamwork and actually got the bells. Do you have time to help me with something?"

"I guess. I was planning on doing some cloud watching, but that can wait."

"I want you and me to try to crack her defenses. Tora, you cannot move from that spot. If you need to defend yourself, you have to stay on that particular piece of grass."

"Can I at least turn around in a circle?"

"Sure. Your feet have to stay inside this circle." He marked a sphere in chalk on the ground. I stepped over to it. I activated my Byakugan. Shikamaru's eyes popped wide open.

"She has a Byakugan?"

"Yes. Be careful if she shoots lightning at you. Even if you try to dodge it, it'll chase you down and hit."

"Not always. Sometimes I make it do that, other times; I choose to just send it in a line at something. If the something dodges, it keeps going in a straight line."

"How do we know the difference?"

"You don't."

"Oh. This is such a drag." He made a hand seal for shadow possession, and I sent a tiny flicker of flame at him. It hit his arm, causing him to yelp. I slammed a rock wall up into Kakashi's face, then turned my attention back to Shikamaru. He was trying to use shadow possession on me again.

"I didn't want to have to use this on you, but you leave me with no choice." I pulled the fluids in his body under my control with my right hand, moved his hands away from each other, and extended my left hand to control Kakashi. I felt their wills struggling, but struggling does no good. I forced them into the air, holding them firmly. I found the mechanisms for their heartbeats and toyed with them, making them beat in synchrony. I sent them flying backwards, landing hard against a tree.

"What was that? Shikamaru, was that a shadow possession?"

"No, it wasn't. I'm not sure what it was. Hey, kid, dish. What did you do to us?"

"I put the fluids in your body under my control. It's a kekkai genkai that's impossible to resist or avoid. When your heartbeats changed, that was me. They'll beat in synchrony for a few hours or longer, depending on how long it is until one of your hearts slows down or speeds up. It's very effective as a defense. Are you okay? I hope that I didn't hurt you."

They scraped their bodies up off the ground. "We're okay, but a little banged up." Kakashi added, "You're free for the rest of today."

Several weeks passed, while every day, my skills grew as my bloodlust got stronger. One day, Kakashi announced that we had received our first mission. I looked up from the ball of lightning in my hand, surprised. I was beginning to expect that we would never get to go out.

"What type of mission is it, Kakashi?"

"It's a C-ranked back-up mission. Lady Hokage wants us to head out after a squad that left yesterday and make sure that they're okay. They should've been back this morning." He gave us five minutes to prepare and get our gear together. I always had everything in my backpack, so I had five minutes to get the details of this mission.

"Who're we backing up?"

"It's Shikaku and Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyuga, and Sakura Haruno. You've met all four of them."

"You're right, I have. They're nice people. What were they supposed to do?"

"Follow up on some signs of enemy shinobi that were found in the woods east of here. Are you familiar with them?"

"Of course. I lived there during the time when I was gathering courage to come into the village. I have a request: if possible, could we keep to the low ground? It's easier to stay hidden there, and I can keep us alerted to any traps."

"I guess that we could." Minato and Hayaku came running back to us, laden down with gear. Kakashi held his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, we're going on a trip that'll take us a few hours, not several weeks. You don't need all of this." Kakashi made them sit down and unload their packs. He went through the stuff that was scattered on the ground, removing unnecessary items. He held up their fire-starting kits. "Why do we need these? If we need a fire, Tora can make one easily. Why did you bring fishing gear? We have food. Just bring your sleeping bag, in case this gets long, your ninja tools, some water, and a little food." They grumbled, but took their extra supplies back to their homes. I chuckled.

"What is it?"

"It's a times like this that you gain appreciation of being able to carry all of your earthly possessions on your back."

"You mean to say that everything you own is in that pack?"

"Yes. I don't need a lot of things to be happy. They're coming back now. I can hear them panting." They came chugging back up the hill, grumbling under their breaths. Kakashi summoned one of his ninja dogs, Pakkun. We followed him as he led us into the woods. We abruptly came across a ninja on the ground against a tree. It was Sakura. I dropped down beside her. Kakashi, Minato, and Hayaku landed behind me. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to find out." I ran my power throughout her body, changing the fluids inside her into healing devices. She raised her head and groaned. Kakashi knelt beside her.

"Sakura, I'm sending you back to the village with Minato. Pakkun, you go with them, and bring Minato back to us. Tora, it's up to you to track the squad for us." We ran through the trees, picking up speed. I slowed down, smelling blood. We dropped to the ground and found a few rust-red spots on the ground, the flies massing around them. I smelled it, picking up the scents of Shikamaru and Shikaku, and another person that I couldn't identify. "There're two types of blood here. The Nara's got hurt, but another person got hurt worse. They bandaged their wounds and followed the other party, which carried off their wounded. They went this way." We headed west, toward the Land of Lightning. We caught up to the Leaf Village party and sent them back home, with the exception of Neji. He came with us. We finally caught up with the enemy party. When we saw them, I was puzzled by their robes.

"Kakashi, what do black robes with red clouds on them mean?"

"Is that the uniform of the people ahead of us?"

"Yeah."

"They're Akatsuki members. Well, do we go on or head back to the village?"

"I vote to go on. We'll be fine." We kept running and started a running fight with the strangers. I saw Neji drop to the ground, stunned. I kept fighting, working my way over to him to protect him. I felt small bits of my consciousness flicker as Hayaku, then Minato, then Kakashi fell. I reached out with my mind, trying to find them. I couldn't, and realized that they were dead. My bloodlust swept through my barrier and started filling the chamber. I felt for the button, trying to turn it off, but I couldn't. My body felt as if it was about to burst, and I found a small door in my head. I threw it open and the bloodlust rushed in, filling it. I sensed my body changing, lengthening. My face grew longer and I saw gray fur growing over my hands as my nails turned into claws. I felt immense power flood my body, and turned my angry gaze toward the four Akatsuki members. They started running. I took off after them, easily catching up to three of them. Their necks broke with satisfying snaps. I raised my head and sniffed. The fourth member was very close. I jumped at him. He ran, and I landed on his back. My longer teeth bit into his neck, breaking it. I slumped to the ground. An angry presence seeped around me. I opened my eyes to see my mother's spirit.

"Why are you sitting on the ground? You finally activated the second stage of your cursemark. You should be hunting, killing, or celebrating. Get up, now!"

"I activated this mark accidently because everyone who I consider precious is once again dead. Go away. I need to mourn."

"They aren't dead, you stupid girl! I held their spirits for a few minutes to allow you to active the second step. They're unconscious, but, other than that, they're fine." I looked up and the bloodlust receded, allowing my form to change back to fully human. "What are you doing? You should pump out more bloodlust and advance to the third stage!"

"That is never going to happen. I'm going to put special protections on the people that I hold dear. I will protect them with my life!"

She suddenly disappeared and I saw her father. "You did well, Tora. Fighting using the second stage is not something to desire. Go back to your friends. They need some healing chakra." I got up and ran back to where Kakashi, Minato, Hayaku, and Neji lay on the ground, breathing faintly but alive. I built a rock dome over us, then filled it with my healing chakra. I felt their consciousnesses stirring and applied more chakra. Kakashi and Neji sat up at the same time, while Hayaku and Minato stayed lying down, groaning. I dropped the rock wall and placed my ultimate defense on them. I shaped the wind into a shield that would allow self-inflicted injury, but prevent critical wounds. The four stood up and looked around.


	10. Revelation and Exams

"Where are they?" Kakashi asked.

"When I thought that your four were dead, I went a little crazy and killed them."

Kakashi eyebrows rocketed upward. "I'll accept that for now, but soon you'll have to tell me how a genin defeated four S-ranked rogue ninja."

"I promise that I will, just, not right now. Now, could we go home before you four pass out again?"

We walked back the way we came, each of us carrying one of the corpses. I carried the one with the neck ripped open, disguising it from sight. We reached the entrance to the Leaf village and walked toward mission central. Kakashi told Neji, Hayaku, and Minato to go to the hospital and get checked out. We carried the corpses into the building and down a long hallway. He knocked on a door, which opened to us. We slipped past a shelf filled with books, several empty tables, and into a circular, windowless room. Kakashi motioned for me to drop the two bodies on the floor. I looked up and saw the Hokage, Anko, and two other jonin that I didn't recognize. Kakashi walked over to the other ninja and told me, "Spill the story. How did you kill these four?"

The Hokage broke in to ask, "Wait, _she_ killed them? She's a genin. It should be impossible for her to kill _one_ s-ranked rogue, let alone four of them."

"Before I tell you that, we have two eavesdroppers." I sent a gust of wind to pull the door open. Minato and Hayaku tumbled forward and Kakashi loomed over them.

"I thought that I told you two to go to the hospital."

"You did, but we were curious about how she killed those four."

"I was serious! Go away." They shuffled out of the room, grumbling. Kakashi shut the door and sealed the sound inside with us. I dropped my head.

"I discovered today that the thing on my neck that I used to think of as a tattoo is really a cursemark. My mother lied to me. Anko, I'm not dangerous right now. I lost control today because of my mother. She picked a time and temporarily captured the spirits of Kakashi, Hayaku, Minato, and Neji. She did this to force me into second stage. I can control it. My control snapped when I felt their life force disappear. I can control the cursemark and the danger that comes with it. When she gave it to me, I managed to put it behind a seal that I can control. I never use it. My mother can no longer do anything like this. She used up the last of her residual chakra and is now trapped in the bowels of the earth."

Anko looked at me. "How did you seal it?"

"I have water that comes from the pool where a moon spirit lives. Water from that pool is the ultimate in healing. My grandfather sent the water through my body, repairing the damage and giving me control over the curse, although I didn't know it at the time."

"How do you know it now?"

"He appeared to me today. He, along with his grandparent like him, on and on forever, lives in the moon, fighting with the ten-tailed beast. I have a daily struggle to keep it contained, but, through my years of having it, I developed a rigid, almost fail-safe block for it. The block is the very center of what makes me human. I don't like my body changing with my control. I will never let it happen again. I'm not dangerous." Kakashi moved over by my side and rested a hand on my shoulder. He left it there and stared down at me until I looked up.

"What?"

"How did your mother give you the mark?"

"She had this weird fluid in a syringe. It hurt like crazy when she pumped it into my shoulder, and my grandfather yelled at her for doing it. It was shortly after that that he healed it. A week and a half after that, my family died."

"Is the mark the reason that you prefer to not use chakra?"

"No, I dislike using chakra because it's messy and easy to interfere with during battle. Using the elements is the perfect way to attack or defend."

The Hokage pulled a picture out of a drawer. "Did this man ever come around your house? His name was Orochimaru."

"I saw him twice. He and my mother were friends. He came once when I was three, and again two months before my family died. On his second visit, my four grandparents made sure to stay between him and me. He seemed to understand the foolishness of coming after me. He gave my mother that syringe and looked at me. He gave me the creeps. I heard him laugh after he left our house. Why?"

"The stuff in the syringe was some of his venom. Your mother may have injected it in you, but the cursemark is Orochimaru's curse. May we see it?" I made the hair in the shirt and tunic over the mark part, sliding to the side. The three flames were slowly looping around in a circle. Kakashi touched it.

"Do we need to seal it?"

"If you try, it won't work. All four of my grandparents tried, and all four of them failed. It's fine. As long as Kakashi, Minato, and Hayaku are alive, the curse will stay in check. If only one of them had 'died' today, it still would have been fine. Parts of my consciousness are linked to them. The only way that those three will die is by suicide, disease, or old age. Try to kill Kakashi. I won't do a thing." Anko threw a shurikan at Kakashi's neck. He held still and the metal clanged off of the air by his neck.

"I felt the air solidify just before the shurikan hit me. How did you do that?"

"My elemental control lets me order the air around. I ordered it to protect Minato, Kakashi, and Hayaku from critical injuries or injuries bad enough that the blood loss could make them critical. The self-inflicted injuries used in summoning are allowed, as are any wound that won't kill you. If someone sends killing chakra at you, the wind will absorb it and put it in your chakra reservoir. It's a type of ultimate defense."

"Would you let us place a chakra monitor one your cursed seal? It would only need to be there for two days, to see how much chakra it emits."

"I have no problem with doing it. Now, can I go? Ebisu's coming, and he really antagonizes me."

"Let's put the chakra monitor on first. It has a small video camera that activates when abnormal chakra activity is recorded." The Hokage pulled a small pellet out of a drawer and walked over to me. She pulled it into three tiny disks and planted one on each of the flames. I felt the flames keep circling as the disks stayed still.

"Is there any way that you can make the flames hold still?"

"No. They've always moved and probably always will. Make the disks back into a pellet and put them in the center of the three flames. When chakra comes, it will come from there." She pulled the flakes off and stuck them onto my skin. I felt them reach into my chakra network, but I ignored them. I walked to the door and whisked from sight, just in time to meet Ebisu.

"Well, little girl, what happened? Did the nasty mean ninjas spank you in the forest?"

I felt my temper rising. I heard a miniscule beep as the camera in the monitor activated. I formed a tiny hole in my shirt so that it could see. Ebisu continued. "Shouldn't you be at home, playing with dolls? Just because the Hokage likes you doesn't mean that you'll make a good ninja. I can't wait for your chunin exams. You'll finally get what's coming to you. You won't even make it past the first round. Go home and quit being dumb. We don't want you." He strutted past me and I forced myself to calm down. I walked out of the building and toward the cliffs with the faces of former Hokages. I climbed to the top of one and sat down, looking over the village. I saw the familiar hustle and bustle of the crowds in downtown, the stream of parents and siblings picking up students at the Academy, and a quiet, unobtrusive flow of people entering and leaving the ANBU headquarters. I heard a set of quiet footsteps walk up behind me. I moved over to make room for Kakashi. He sat, quietly looking at the rock in front of his hands. At last, he spoke.

"You weren't kidding when you sad that Ebisu antagonized you. The Hokage gave him an official reprimand, and then gave me some instructions. There's a set of chunin exams that start in three weeks. Can you make sure that Hayaku and Minato make it past the second round?"

"I can, very easily. It's not so hard to help people."

"After the second round, I know that they'll drop out. They don't think that they're ready for a one-on-one battle with another shinobi, and they're correct. You are ready, and you can make it. You'll be chunin. Will you take the exams?"

"Of course. Do you have a form or something for me?"

"I do. Here's one for you. I have to go talk to the knuckleheads." He left, and I stared at the paper in my hands. I sent out manipulation strings to Hayaku and Minato. When Kakashi gave them their forms, I willed them to sign them.


	11. Chapter 11

It was a long three weeks. Finally, the day of the first exam rolled around. Minato, Hayaku and I walked up to the building. We went up two flights of stairs and stopped, startled by the sight of several of our fellow genin standing outside a door. Two men were blocking it. As we watched, three of the genin ran for the door, and the two blocked them effortlessly. I shook my head.

"Those people are wasting their time. There's no way that they can get past those two. The stairs that we need to take are at the other end of that hall. The two at the door managed to make a genjutsu of the stairs. In the interest of crowd control, I feel that our only option is to stop those two. Leave it to me." I walked up to the two. "Move away from the stairs, guys. I'm in a hurry."

"Make us." It was the shorter of the two. I grabbed their necks and clacked their heads together. They dropped to the floor, groaning.

"By the way, the genjutsu and transformation jutsus aren't fooling me. Quit it before I hit you again." They released the jutsus, and Minato, Hayaku and I walked toward the stairs. When we reached the door at the top, Kakashi met us and wished us good luck. We entered the room and found it crammed with people. I counted at least three hundred. I muttered to Minato and Hayaku, "It's my personal goal to make sure that only nine teams make it to the third exam." They nodded, but I heard their thoughts. They were the same.

_When we hit the third exam, I'm dropping out._ I didn't blame them. Several adults appeared in the room, including Neji, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Shikaku. To my surprise, I saw Ibiki at the front of the room. Evidently, he was the proctor of the first exam. My suspicions were confirmed when he said, "My name is Ibiki Moreno, and, for the duration of this exam I'll be your proctor and worst nightmare." He assigned us each a number, spacing out the teams and keeping teammates from being side by side. I was near the back of the room, Hayaku was way to the left and up front, and Minato was to my right and behind me. Ibiki continued. "This test is a written test made up of ten questions. You have an hour to take the exam. The tenth question will not be asked until fifteen minutes before the exam. Each time you are caught cheating, you lose two points, as you start with a perfect ten. If you are caught five times, you and your teammates will fail this exam. You can try again next time. If you get all ten questions incorrect, your team will also be disqualified. Begin!" I sent thoughts to Hayaku and Minato.

_This isn't really a test of our knowledge; it's a test of our information gathering abilities. After thirty minutes, if you need help, send me a thought. There are three chunin in this exam. Try to find them._ I zeroed in on one of the chunin, sending tiny gusts of wind at his paper, making it rise up, and showing me the answers. I switched to another of the chunin, entering his mind and staring at his paper. I filled out my test and, to amuse myself, built a genjutsu around it. Anyone who looked at my test would see their worst nightmares. I felt a little of my chakra drain as four people stared at my paper. Three proctors looked at them at once.

"Numbers forty seven, one hundred and three, ninety one, twenty six, fifty eight, and twelve, you failed. Leave the exam room." I released my minor genjutsu and they got up, filing out of the room. Two teams down, several more to go. I felt simultaneous thoughts strike my head.

_HELP, Tora!_ I looked at my paper and sent them my answers. They each had three questions answered, although different questions. I told them to keep their answers. They carefully filled in the rest of the questions. All three of us sat back and relaxed, although I turned my paper over. After a few more minutes, Ibiki spoke. "The tenth question is optional. I need to warn you, however. If you choose to take the question and one of your teammates fails to answer it correctly, your entire team fails and the person with the lowest score will never be able to take the chunin exams again. If you don't want to take the risk, you may quit the exam right now."

I fed information to Hayaku and Minato. _This is the tenth question. It's about whether you care more about your teammates or yourself. The correct answer is to leave the room._ I stood up and said, "I'm out. I'm sorry, guys, but I'd rather wait six months than let one of you stay a genin for the rest of your lives." They stood up and we walked toward the door. When we shut it quietly, we saw a chunin motioning for us to follow him. He said, "Congratulations. You passed the first exam." He led us into a room where I saw Anko. She smiled at me. I heard some more footsteps coming down the hallway. It was Hanabi Hyuga and her two teammates, Kirabo and Taluya. Eventually, thirty-eight other teams filtered into the room. More than half of the teams who had tried had failed the question. Anko led us to a forest, fenced in and fitted with many gates. She assigned each team a gate, then handed each person a slip of paper. We all read it and signed it. She told us, "This next exam can last up to five days. Each team gets either a Heaven scroll or an Earth scroll. To pass this exam, you must get to the center tower with both types of scrolls. Since each team only gets one, this means that you have to get the other scroll from one of the other teams, with only a fifty percent chance of getting the scroll you need. In a few minutes, the booth over there will open and start calling people in. When you get your scroll, make your way to your gate." The booth opened and I held my teammates back.

"If we wait until the end, I'll know which team has which scroll, and which person is carrying it. When we get both of our scrolls, I'll get you two to the tower, than secure you behind several extremely powerful genjutsu so that I can finish my personal mission of making sure that nine teams only make it to the final exam. Stay put once I leave you, okay?"

"Sure." After all of the other teams had gathered their scroll, we entered the booth. They handed me our Earth scroll. I felt outward, finding a Heaven scroll. As we walked toward our gate, I pulled a Heaven scroll out of another team's bag. They didn't see it. The gates opened, I stepped into the forest, and my hand closed on the Heaven scroll. "I've got it. Let's go." We ran toward the tower. We made it in record time, just less than thirty minutes. I opened the door with the number corresponding to our gate, shooed Minato and Hayaku inside, and placed my genjutsu over the door after I unloaded all of our joint food supplies in with them. "I have the scrolls with me. I'll be back in a while, after weeding out some of the competition." I flew through the trees, calling scrolls to me. After three hours, I had ten Heaven scrolls and all twenty of the Earth scrolls. I kept sweeping over the woods, and finally gathered the other ten Heaven scrolls. I forced the eight other teams that I wanted toward the tower. When they had almost reached their doors, I dropped two scrolls at their feet, shoved them through the door, and sat them down. I shot back to my door, opened it, and dropped my genjutsu.

"Guys, it's just me." I sat down beside them and opened our scrolls, throwing them away from us. Hinata Hyuga appeared.

"Well, you three certainly made good time. Congratulations on passing the second test. Do you have any questions?"

Hayaku asked, "What's that plaque on the wall mean?"

"It means that if our strengths are our minds, then we must work on training our bodies, but if our strengths are our bodies, then we must improve our minds. We must follow our own paths. The missing word is the word for person." She led us into the bowels of the tower. We found the other eight teams blinking in the light. We lined up. Shikamaru Nara stepped up.

"The third round of the chunin exams is one-on-one fights. Since so many people made it through the second challenge, we need to have a preliminary round. If any of you want out, this time it only affects you." Hayaku and Minato turned and walked away. They weren't ready for fighting. I manipulated one other person, a random stranger from another village, making them quit. That left us with twenty-four people. Shikamaru said, "Since that seems to be everyone, the rules are simple: there are no rules. I'm here to intervene if it looks like there'll be a fatality. Other than that, anything goes. The match is over when one contestant forfeits or is unable to continue fighting. Contestants that are losing are encouraged to forfeit to avoid unnecessary fighting." We walked up to a viewing canopy above the ring. I heard the whir of a computer as it cranked out the first set of contestants. Hanabi was matched up with some punk from the Village Hidden among the Mists. She easily defeated him using the Gentle Fist technique. I became more and more bored as the matches drug onward. I heard my name called and realized that my match was the last. I jumped into the ring, eager for my fight. A genin from the Village Hidden among the Stones was my opponent. I felt his power, and settled back to think. The forefinger of my right hand and my right thumb settled into their familiar places over my lips and under my chin, respectively. Shikamaru gave the command to fight, and I slipped into my highest speed. I used a combination of the Byakugan and my chi-seeing eyes, hitting the chakra points with chakra and blocking the chi points. I felt my opponent sag and fall. I stepped back, and Shikamaru announced that I was the winner.

"The winners of the preliminary rounds have one month to train and rest up before the final competition. I suggest that you start quickly."

I spent the month training and manipulating events. I made the Hokage and Kazekage start talks about a temporary ninja exchange, and made Tsunade decide to put me in the Hidden Sand Village. When the day of the final competition finally rolled around, I had so much energy that my skin almost couldn't hold it all. I was eager to fight and prove my worth. I walked into the arena, the same arena where I fought to prove my abilities as a student. Shikamaru Nara was our proctor again, and he made us line up and face the crowd. I picked out the faces of Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Neji, Minato, Hayaku, Hinata, Hiashi, Shikaku, Iruka, Anko, and Ibiki. I smiled. The fights were going to be fun. My first fight was against Hanabi Hyuga, a master of the Gentle Fist style of fighting. I walked to the viewing platform and waited for the first fight to end. Two unfamiliar newcomers were fighting. They wasted chakra on ineffective attacks, not realizing that they were evenly matched. The match ended in a double knockout. I jumped down to the ring, glad for an excuse to let my energy loose. Hanabi hugged the shadows, then charged me, chakra glowing around her hands. I activated my Byakugan and dodged, tapping a chakra point in her arms and shooting my chakra throughout her arm's chakra network, blocking all of the points in her arms. I decided to use an Eight Trigrams technique- one hundred and twenty-eight palms. I felt the speed of my attack increase subconsciously. I had the entirety of her chakra points blocked in a few seconds, then backed off. Shikamaru declared that I was the winner, and I climbed the stairs up to the box. Hiashi and Neji Hyuga met me at the top. Hiashi was the first to speak.

"How did you get a Byakugan?"

"My paternal grandmother was a Hyuga. I came by it honestly."

"What was her name?"

"I don't know; I just called her grandma."

Neji broke in. "Did she teach you the Eight Trigrams jutsu?"

"She was practicing one day and I saw her doing it. I tried it until I mastered it. It took me a while."

Neji uncovered his forehead, exposing a cursemark. "Did she have a mark like this on her forehead?"

"No. Her head was bare. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

Hiashi spoke quietly. "Would you like to train with us in the mornings? My daughter Hinata, Neji, and I always spend an hour training. It's exclusively Gentle Fist and Byakugan fighting. You're welcome to come."

"I'd enjoy that. Thank you for the invitation. Where do you meet?"

"We meet in the courtyard of my house. If you need help finding it, I'll send Hinata to your house in the morning."

"I'll find it easily. I'd be surprised if Hinata could find my home. I live in the woods. What time do you meet?"

"We meet at seven every morning and train for as long as we have the time."

I continued walking up the stairs. I saw an unfamiliar form, wearing black from neck to toe, and carrying a large scroll on his back, step out of the shadows. I prepared myself for another fight.

"Hey, relax, kid. I'm in no rush for a fight. I'm Kankuro, by the way."

"I'll reserve judgment until I hear you out. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to introduce myself to you. While you're in Sunagakure, I'll be your partner. We operate things a little differently than here. Sometimes we have two-man squads. We'll be working together for as long as you stay in our village. I hear your name being called. Good luck."

I stepped onto the rail in the viewing box, called some cold fire out, and sat down on it. I floated down to the arena. When I was six feet from the ground, I dispersed the flame and jumped onto the earth. I heard murmurs from the crowd. I walked toward my opponent, staring into his eyes, forcing his arm to raise and forfeit. I flew back to the box after winning by default. Kakashi intercepted me.

"Why did your opponent back down?"

"How should I know?"

"You have your ways. Oh, prepare yourself for a melee fighting test tomorrow. I know, it's unfair, but before you go to the Village Hidden among the Sands, she wants to test your abilities when fighting in a group. Well, I hope you make chunin. Oh, you get one person of your choice on your side tomorrow."

"If that's the case, I choose Neji."

"Not a bad choice. I wish you luck."

He walked back to the regular stands, and I sat down, contemplative. The other two contestants stood warily, waiting for the wreckage in the arena from the last fight to be cleared off. There were only three people left after a double knockout. That meant that I had one more fight left, after these two went at it. The one that won would be the one that I beat. I catnapped, letting my body rest as I watched the fight and planned my strategy for my last fight. When the match ended and the loser was carried off of the field on a stretcher, I floated quickly down to the floor. Shikamaru gave us the command to fights, and I unleashed my fighting spirit. In the half of a second that it took for me to touch his arm, I attached a drop of chi, tapping his reserve. I called it to me, powering my attacks.

I pulled the metal out of my shirt and threw it at him with my mind, sending it out as miniscule, dull-looking specks. Because they were dull, they didn't shine, making it impossible to see them. I infused them with my lightning, tiny bits that attacked different parts of the nervous system, scrambling it for an hour. Each bit of metal attacked a slightly different part of his system, making it impossible to work out a pattern in the modifications. The metal hit him, causing light shocks throughout his whole system, except for his involuntary muscles. He fell to the floor as the orders that his brain gave to his legs went to his left ear and nostril instead. They stiffened, making him look weird. Shikamaru looked at him, then looked at me. "If you can't get up in thirty seconds, this match is over." The boy struggled, with different parts of his anatomy twitching at different times. He finally stilled, and Shikamaru declared the chunin exams over. I stood quietly, accepted the praise, and left. I went looking for Naruto, probing his thoughts and finding out everything that I could about him. I sensed a deep sadness in him about a man named Jiraiya, and recognized the name as that of Kakashi's favorite author. I walked up to Naruto and said, "I think that we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Tora."

"Oh. Hey, Tora. I'm Naruto. Nice to meet you."

"Same here. Hey, I actually came here to ask a favor of you. Where's Master Jiraiya buried?"

"Pervy Sage? Why do you want to see his grave? You never met him."

"Well, it's a favor to Kakashi and a favor to you. I might have a way to bring him back."

"You mean bring him back to life by sacrificing your own life? I can't let you do that."

"I don't have to die. Trust me- there's no way that I'd die just to bring back someone that I've never met. Just take me to where he's buried, then go get Kakashi."

"Okay." He led me to a tree with a body-sized ball of sand in the top branches. I pulled it down, grabbed his shoulder, and ordered him to chip away the sand from the corpse.

"All of it?"

"Yes. Now, start working." He chipped at the sand for a while, then started complaining.

"This is taking too long! Can I get Shikamaru to help?"

"No."

"Kiba?"

"No."

"Neji?"

"No."

"Sakura, please?"

"No. Do I need to tell Sakura that you're goofing off?"

"No ma'am! I'll get back to work." He finally finished removing the hardened sand from the body, and I shooed him off. After I formed a cave out of earth, I used my spirit water to rehydrate the body and make it into top physical condition, and made a body double with a life force of her own. Just as I was about to start, Naruto brought Kakashi to me.

"What are you planning to do?"

"I've made a body double. She has a life force that is identical in strength to mine. I'll use her power to bring him back. When the force contained in her is gone, she'll disintegrate. Kakashi, I need you to persuade Tsunade to let me do that melee fighting test tomorrow. In another hour, I'll be asleep and nothing'll wake me up."

"Sure." With that, he disappeared, and I turned my attention back to Jiraiya's body. I beckoned to the double, and she started transferring her life force to the body.

Okay, monkey, dragon, serpent, rabbit, and boar. "Memory reclamation jutsu. Transfer to inert body- all memories before death, come back!" Jiraiya's body jerked as his spirit came back. I bent over his head to check his pulse as the body double evaporated. His eyes opened, right at eye level to my chest.

"Hey, little lady. What's up with you? What say we get a drink?"

"If I had known you were a pervert, I wouldn't have brought you back to life. How do you feel? Are you weak, woozy, or tired?"

"All three. Wait, I was dead. Why am I back in the world of the living?"

"Naruto's still mourning for you, and Kakashi's extremely bored. Write another book, and go pester Naruto. That's all I want you to do, but you're a free man. Your life is yours to live. Have fun. Naruto! Get in here!" The blond ninja popped into the room. "Take care of Jiraiya. Get him out of here so I can sleep."

"Come on, Pervy Sage! Grandma Tsunade will want to see you."

"You mean I have to deal with that dragon first thing after I wake up? Not fair!"

"Life's not fair. Now _go_." I pushed them out of the cave, sealed the entrance, and felt into a deep sleep. I woke up to a small amount of sunlight streaming on my face, a warm, furry body beside me, and two men sitting against the wall in front of me.

"When you go to sleep, kid, you really sleep. Akamaru, come here, boy." The dog whined, looking at me.

"You liked sleeping there? Why?" Whine, whimper, bark. "It was warm, soft, and still? Unlike sleeping by me? Hey!" He crossed his arms and pouted, causing me to shift my attention to the other man. It turned out to be Kankuro.

"Kiba's right. Anyone could sneak up to you when you're asleep and kill you."

"Not true. When I'm sleeping, the air itself protects me. It's impossible to hurt me."

"Huh. Well, anyways, Kakashi told me to tell you that he got you out of that test the Hokage wanted you to take. When you're ready, he wants us to leave for Suna. Get your stuff together." I got up and walked off, chuckling. Kankuro didn't know that I saw everything while I was sleeping. When I'm unconscious or asleep, I can separate my mind from my body and let it roam. Handy if I need it, but useless otherwise.

I finished packing my things up, said my goodbyes, and went to check on Jiraiya. I found him beside Naruto in the ramen shop. He was holding his head and groaning.

"What's the matter? Solid food too much for you?"

"No, I tried to drink some sake earlier, tripped, and hit my head. My tolerance for alcohol went down the drain when I died."

"Yeah, I figured that that would happen. Take it easy for the next few days, okay? If you exert yourself too much, you might start turning into an old, weak, helpless man. Well, I'm off. Take care, Jiraiya, Naruto."

I walked to the gate of the village and saw Kankuro standing there. He pushed himself off of the wall and started walking. I held out a kit to him once I caught up.

"What's this for?"

"At some point in the future, the chances are fairly high that I might go crazy and stop responding to anyone. If that happens, you'll need this kit. If you have to use it, open the scroll inside it, wait for the seal to form, pour a drop of the fluid in the bottle onto the middle of the seal, and wait for thirty seconds. By that time, it'll have worked enough for my body to know what to do. I'll bare one side of my neck, and you will have to inject the contents of the syringe into my neck. If it's the side of my neck with the mark on it, the potion has to go into the center of the red dot. It won't hurt me, but it'll knock me out for long enough for my mind to reclaim its sense of self. It's confusing, but it works."

"Okay, but what happens if I let you stay in the crazy state?"

"Depending on why I went crazy, I could go unconscious on my own or start killing people. If I went into the crazy state because on an injury, I'll go unconscious, but if I'm furious I'll start killing people."

"One more question: what's in the bottle?"

"You don't need to know, but don't touch it or it'll hurt you. Now, can we go?"

"Sure." With that, we left the village. I let my mind fly back to Minato and Hayaku, telling them goodbye. I set a part of my mind by Kakashi and watched him hold Kurenai's baby- a darling eighteen month old girl. She had the dark gray eyes of Asuma and Kurenai's distinctive rings of darkening color around the pupil. I set my hand on Kakashi's shoulder, and decided to finally open up the avenue of mind communication with him.

_Hey, Kakashi._ His head snapped up and he looked around.

"Tora? Where are you? I thought you had to leave."

_I'm outside the village at the moment. I'm talking to you with my mind. You know, you look pretty silly talking to nothing. Use your thoughts to communicate._

_Like this?_ His mental voice was slightly rough, carrying the taint of the deaths of people long ago.

_Good job. Exactly like that. I came to tell you goodbye. Take care of that kid. She's precious. I'll see you when I come back to the village._

_Wait, Tora. You'll see me sooner. The next ninja to come to the sand village is me, then Minato, followed by Shikamaru, then Ino, and the last ninja will be Choji. Try to keep out of trouble until I get there, okay? It'll only be two weeks._

_Hey, trouble comes to me as surely as the sparks fly upward, the rivers go to the sea, and the tides wash into the shore. It's in my name and nature to attract it. I'd be a fool to try to avoid it, but don't worry. I can handle it._

_Just be careful, okay?_

_Sure. Well, maintaining the connection is getting hard, so I gotta go. Bye._

_Good bye._ I pulled back to my mind, walking the road out of the village toward the unknown shifting sands.

That night, when we camped, Kankuro brought out his tent while I made a small earthen dome to sleep in. It rained, and he got drenched. When morning rolled around, he was huddled by a pitiful fire, shivering and trying to dry out.

"Get wet last night?"

"Yes, of course I did. It stormed really hard last night!"

"It did? If you're so cold and wet, why don't you have a bigger fire?"

"The wood's wet and this is the biggest one that will burn. Kakashi said that you had some weird way of controlling water and fire, and I saw you use an earth-style jutsu to make your sleeping quarters last night. Could you do anything?"

"I was waiting for you to ask. This might feel a little strange for a few seconds." I pulled the water out of his clothes and hair, and off of his body. He twitched a little, but stayed still. I sent a blast of flames at the fire, getting it to burn hotter and harder. "Get warmed up or you'll catch a cold."

"Thanks. Hey, tonight, could you make me an earthen dome house?"

"Sure, but by tonight we should be in the desert, shouldn't we? I'm not sure if I can manipulate the sand. Oh, and by the way, it's not jutsus. It's element manipulation."

We moved out once he was warm and we had eaten breakfast. It took us several hours to make it to the edge of the desert, and Kankuro relaxed immediately upon the sight of sand.

"From here on out, I might move a little slower than usual, Kankuro."

"Why?"

"I want to try to manipulate the sand. If I can't then I can't, but it's always worth a try." I sent my power out, asking the sand to move. A small string of it rose from the ground, and I pulled it closer, but my control wavered and the sand dropped to the ground. I growled in frustration and pulled it back up, walking away with it following me. Kankuro broke into a trot to catch up.

"How did you know the direction of Suna?"

"Simple. I've studied many maps. Now, please be quiet so that I can concentrate on the sand."

By the end of the day, my manipulation of the grains of sand was as good as my control over the earth. We paused for the night, and each of us got a solid sand hut. We woke up to a brilliant sunrise, and continued walking toward the Sand Village. I grew impatient- I know, I need to work on it- and harnessed the wind for Kankuro and I. We reached the gates of Suna within an hour, and easily gained admittance. Kankuro led me towards the largest circular structure in the middle of the village. He knocked once on the door, and a voice told him to enter. The door opened silently on well-oiled hinges and we stepped through. The first thing to catch my eyes was the bright red hair of the Kazekage, and the tanuki-like black rings around his eyes.

"Welcome back, Kankuro. I trust your journey went well?"

"Yeah. Oh, the Hokage, Kakashi, and Naruto sent letters for you. Here." He tossed them at the Kazekage, but underestimated the weight of Naruto's scroll, causing it to go toward the window instead of the desk. I called the wind, stopping the scroll before it could leave the room. It settled gently on the desk in front of Gaara. He glanced at me, slightly curious but hiding it.

"My name is Torabaru Denja, more commonly known as Tora. For the time I remain in your village, I am yours to command."

"Really? That's not the attitude that I expected from someone in a shinobi exchange."

"I'm not the typical shinobi. Read the letters from the Hokage and Kakashi. It'll explain about me. Is there anything that I need to do now?"

"Not really. Kankuro, show her around the village, okay?"

"Sure, Gaara. Come on, kid." We walked out of the office and Kankuro said, "Bet you didn't notice that Gaara and I are brothers?"

"Actually, you smell a lot alike, so I figured that you were related."

"You can tell who a person is by the smell? That's weird."

"Not really. When you live in the woods, your hearing, eyesight, and sense of smell get incredibly keen. It's an acquired trait."

"So, how far away can you smell a person?"

"Approximately three miles when I'm trying a little, about five when I'm really trying. I can hear you from a mile away. My vision has several aspects that I'm not going to get into today. Hey, wasn't I supposed to get a tour?"

"Well, yeah, but I was kind of hoping we could train together so that we can work well together. That sound good?"

"Sure." We walked toward a secluded training ground, passing no people on the way. When we reached the sand-covered stretch, Kankuro spoke again.

"I'm a puppet master, not a close-range specialist. How about you?"

"I can do almost anything, but I'm better at close-range attacks and defense. Looks like we mesh perfectly."

"Hm. I'm gonna try to locate Temari and see if she'll fight us. Now I just have to find her."

I held my hand out to the air, and a spun-wind bird flew to my hand. "Tell it your message and who it's for. The bird'll find her."

"Ooookay. Temari, Kankuro here. Could you meet me at the old training ground? I have a favor to ask." I flicked the finger the bird was on and it took off. Within a minute, a buxom girl with blond ponytails and a giant fan appeared in front of us.

"I didn't know that you harnessed the wind, Kankuro. Who's this?"

"This is Tora. She's the first Leaf shinobi coming here. She's the one who sent the bird. Since we're partners now, we need to learn how to work together. Could you attack us?"

"I guess. I need to see if this girl's worthy of being your partner." She gave a slightly wolfish smile. She pulled out her fan, and I braced myself. Kankuro summoned his Crow puppet, and I activated my Sharingan and Byakugan.

"There are three purple circles on that fan. As she displays each successive circle, her power increases. You've been warned."

"Are her attacks wind-based?"

"Yeah."

"Then I have nothing to worry about." She opened her fan to the first circle and said, "Ninja art: slicing air wave!" Kankuro ducked back, sending the Crow at her from the side, and I moved to the front. I called to the wind, forcing it to part and blow harmlessly to the side. While I was occupied, Kankuro threw kunai and shuriken towards Temari. I threw some of the metal in my clothes at her- as hair-fine, shine-less filaments. She dodged Kankuro's weapons and ran right into my attack, which wrapped up her fan, forcing it to stay at one circle. She sent another wave of air, this time at Kankuro. I lashed out with senbon, driving him away from the blast. His hands twitched, calling Crow around and sending him at Temari's back. I set a genjutsu on Temari in the same instant so she didn't notice the attacking puppet. She sent chakra bonds at us, trying to pin us down so she could attack us straight on. With my Byakugan, I tapped each chakra string, sending it back. In the next second, Crow grabbed her and held a kunai to her throat. I relaxed my genjutsu, letting her know that she was captured. She acknowledged her defeat with a nod of her head. Kankuro chuckled.

"Well, sis, what's your opinion of Tora?"

"She's a formidable opponent. How did you bind my fan?"

"Feel it. I wrapped strings of metal around it. It's gone now." She nodded and walked off, satisfied. Kankuro showed me to my apartment, and I fell asleep, exhausted.

By the time two weeks passed and Kakashi was due at the village, Kankuro and I were working as a well-oiled team. I sent my mind out, trying to feel Kakashi's consciousness, and brushed gently against it. In my mind, I yelped happily. _Hey, Kakashi! I missed you! How are the others?_

_Well, I've been trying to keep Minato and Hayaku out of trouble, Naruto played the idiot around Sakura one too many times and she clobbered him, Jiraiya and Tsunade are getting a little cozy, and the rest of the village has been good._

_How's Kurenai? Have you popped the question yet?_

_What question?_

_Don't play dumb, Kakashi. You're in love with her. Have you told her yet?_

_No. I've been kind of worried about rejection._

_You, a fearsome jonin was afraid of being rejected by a girl? That's rich. Next time you see her, just ask her. She'll say yes._

_I don't know…_

_Ask her or I'll take control of your mind and do it for you._

_Fine. You're as scary as Sakura _and_ Tsunade in a bad mood._

_Good._ We pulled apart, and thirty minutes later Kankuro found me, sitting on a bluff overlooking the village.

"Hey, Tora. Kakashi's in Gaara's office right now. He's being added to our squad. It turns out that every one of the Leaf shinobi will join our group as they arrive."

"Really? That's cool."

"Yeah. Well, we should probably go see him. Gaara said that he brought you something." We walked down the path to the Kazekage's office building. Kakashi walked out the door a few seconds after we arrived.

"Hey, Tora. Kankuro, how's she been treating you?"

"Well, after we ironed out the whole 'respect me because of my merits, not because I'm a girl' issue, everything's been great. She's exceptionally good at working with me. It seems like everywhere I fail, she picks up the slack and vice-versa."

Kakashi's eyebrows rose. "Somehow it seems that she could do that for almost anyone. Is there anything specific that we need to do?"

"Not today. Tomorrow we have a routine border patrol mission, but that shouldn't be too hard." I chuckled internally and thought about the chances of avoiding trouble with me along. They were approximately infinity to none, with the chances of finding trouble the high side. Kakashi and I fell into an easy, comfortable rhythm of walking, based on our months of working together. I felt a wave of jealousy come flooding off Kankuro and felt for his thoughts.

_It's not fair. I've been watching her back for two weeks and in five minutes _he_ shows up and she forgets about me. I haven't worked up the courage to tell her that I like her, so I don't have a claim on her emotions, but it rubs me so wrong! Argh. Well, tonight I'll try to find her to tell her._ We found the apartment building that held Kakashi's room, dropped him off, and continued toward my temporary home. We stopped at the entrance to my room and Kankuro blushed faintly.

"Tora…I've been trying to work up the courage to tell you this for a while. I uh, um…"

"Well, Kankuro, spit it out." I wasn't about to make this easy for him.

"Well, um… I, uh, um-"

"When you can talk enough to tell me, you know where to find me." I turned and reached for the doorknob, only to feel his hand whirl me around, press me up against the door, and capture my chin. He tilted my head up so that my eyes met his. His head lowered to mine, and our lips connected. I felt a spark similar to electricity fly between us. He titled his head, deepening the kiss, and a fire broke out in my stomach. As his tongue flicked over my lip, I opened my mouth. He took it as the invitation it was, and his tongue slid quickly into my mouth. He explored thoroughly, and then retreated, inviting me into his mouth. I shyly took the invitation, wrapping my arms around his neck. He responded quickly, wrapping his hands tighter around my waist, moving his mouth against mine. We broke apart for air and he looked at me cautiously. I felt his worry about my violent side and got the feeling that he expected me to punch him. I did just the opposite- I pulled him back to me and initiated another kiss. He kissed me back even more eagerly. When we parted again, we were both panting.

"Was that clear enough?"

"Yes. I…I don't know what to say. I like you too, but I've never done anything like this."

"I understand. We can take it as slow as you want to. We don't need to rush."

"Thank you, Kankuro." I pressed upward, kissing him softly, turned, and entered my room. I left it unlocked, a silent invitation for him if he decided to take it.

I stirred late in the night when I felt a warm body slide into bed beside me. I stiffened until Kankuro murmured softly in my ear.

"Relax, Tora. I just want to hold you." I snuggled closer to him and drifted back to sleep. It might have been my imagination, but as I fell back to sleep, I could have sworn that I felt him kiss my neck.

When I woke up, Kankuro's arms were around me and I was pressed tightly to his chest. I yawned, stretching slightly. He groaned and woke up. He buried his face in my hair.

"Do we have to get up?"

"Well, unless you want to be later than Kakashi, we probably should start getting ready."

"Wait, later than Kakashi? What does that mean?"

"Kakashi is never on time. Today's no different. He's getting ready right now. All I need to do is run my head under some cold water and eat a little food and I'll be ready."

"How do you know what Kakashi's doing? He's across the village."

"I have a skill that you need to know about. I can use my mind to communicate with people. When you hear what sounds like my voice, use your thoughts to answer."

_Can you hear me, Kankuro?_

_Yeah. This is weird._

_It seems like that at times, doesn't it? Believe me, it's something you get used to fairly quickly._

_Really? When were you originally planning on telling me about this?_

_When you proved your trustworthiness. You've become my friend, and even more. My loyalty is yours. Don't abuse it._

_I wasn't planning on it. This is cool. What's the range?_

_About one and a half miles to ten miles, depending on the person. Since I've known you for two weeks, my range for you is about five miles. As we get closer, the range will extend father. Actually, if I tried, I could hear the thoughts, pinpoint the locations, and tell who the people were for fifteen miles._

_That's scary._

_I know. Well, we really need to get ready._ In record time- thirty seconds- we were both ready and out the door. Leisurely, we walked to the meeting point, and we still reached it a full half-hour before Kakashi. I decided to needle him a little.

"Kakashi, if I hadn't looked at your mind, I would swear that you're a girl, what with all the time you spend getting ready to go places. I'm a girl and it takes me thirty seconds."

"Well, that's you. I'm me. Are we ready to move out?"

"One thing first- give me all of your Icha Icha books. This is a serious expedition and we don't have time for foolishness. Hand them over. I'll know if you try to hide any."

He grumbled, but complied. I sent them with the wind back to his apartment. As we walked out of the village, we fell into an easy, familiar stride. After about an hour, I felt Kakashi's boredom level rise over the threshold of caring about it, and he started to recite memorized portions of his books to himself. I growled slightly and whacked him over the head with my fist. He yelped and clutched his head.

"What was that for?"

"Concentrate! Something strange is out there, and I'm worried." Kakashi immediately straightened up, stopping his fooling around. He groaned.

"Why is it that Murphy's Law states that trouble follows you? Did you anger the Universe or the Karma fairy at some point in your past?"

"I have no idea, but can you guys watch my back for a few minutes? I need to do something, and it requires me to be unconscious for a little bit."

"I guess. Kakashi, you take that side, I'll take this side." I sat down, crossing my legs and setting my hands on my knees. I released my hold on my mind, shoving it outside my body, and encompassing the better part of ten square miles. I pinpointed the group of ninja coming towards us, and swore silently. At least fifteen attackers were coming. This was just _fantastic_. Note the sarcasm. I pushed back into my body, opened my eyes, and clambered to my feet. "Fifteen missing-nin. Coming up fast on the left flank. You've been warned." I stood up, stretching my muscles and preparing for battle. I felt the pulses of alien chakra thrumming ahead of them. I cursed internally. They were all jonin. This was just _wonderful_. I called the sand up, forcing it under my will. After the ninja attackers surrounded us, one of them spoke.

"We only want Hatake and the girl. Sand ninja, surrender them to us and you can go free and unharmed."

"Like hell! I'm not gonna leave them."

"Your devotion is admirable, but what hope do you have of winning? There are fifteen of us and only three of you."

I spoke up. "Actually, there's as many of us as we need to have. Bring it on." Several sets of eyebrows lifted, but my face descended into a snarl. I activated my Sharingan and my Byakugan, turning my eyes a really interesting color- a diluted Sharingan. Pale pink and grey. Everything stood out- chakra flares vibrant, the sand almost alive, and the worry of my companions. I reached my mind out to gently reassure them, and galvanize them into action. We lunged, fighting as every ninja for himself. Herself, in my case. Unfair groups of five to one singled each of us out. I saw someone move up behind me with my Byakugan and ducked just in time to avoid a hit to my temporary death pressure point. I snarled in sheer fury. I felt the nervousness flooding off the two precious people in my life, and attacked in earnest.

My kunai flashed out, ripping into the arm and side of one of my attackers. He dropped his weapon with a yelp of pain. My slight amount of distraction cost me. On my arm, where my shirt sleeve rode up, a shuriken buried itself. I hissed, yanked it out, and threw it back at its owner. It buried itself in his throat. One down, one injured, but four to go. I hear an unfamiliar tread and noticed one of Kakashi's opponents forsake his fight in favor of battling me. My injured opponent traded places with one of Kankuro's attackers. That left me with, well, let me see, the original five opponents. This was not one of my better days. My hands whipped through the hand seals for the Great Fireball Jutsu, burning one of the ninja beyond all repair. The scent of charred flesh flowed in waves around us. I smirked in happiness and pushed outward with my sand, abrading the skin of my opponents. I felt a few flickers as Kakashi and Kankuro took out several ninja. My focus sharpened and I snuffed the life out of another opponent, landing a well-timed hit to a true death point on his back. It stopped his heart. I paused for half a second to catch my breath. It was a mistake that almost turned fatal.

I felt earth coming toward me, and turned just in time to avoid taking it directly to the chest. It clipped my left arm at the same time another rock snapped my right leg. I yelped as the two bones broke like dry twigs. I stumbled, and a rage came over me. Dimly, I heard Kakashi and Kankuro yelling at me, but it was like I couldn't understand them. My eyes slipped to the nearest ninja and I lunged, ignoring the sharp pains radiating from my leg. My kunai buried themselves in his kidneys, and I swung to another foe. He backed up, raising his hands, trying to placate me. I ignored it, lashing out with a wave of chakra and snuffing his out. He crumpled, and two other ninja lunged at me. I blasted a wave of sand at them, ripping skin off of their bones. They bled to death in minutes. Kakashi and Kankuro quickly dealt with the rest of our opponents. My fighting instincts refused to stand down. I whirled around, well aware of the killing light in my eyes. My gaze swung to Kakashi and Kankuro, recognized them as friends, and kept searching. Kankuro yelled at me, trying to make me relax. I tried to reach him with my mind, and just barely made it.

_Kankuro, use the kit I gave you. Some part of me that's full of survival instincts won't give up control. Hurry before something bad happens!_

He didn't respond, just dug into his bag of ninja tools, coming up with the small box I gave him. He ripped the scroll open, waited the half-second before the seal formed, and tipped a small amount of the fluid in the jar into the middle of the seal. Instantly, I felt my consciousness being suppressed. The jutsu released with my blood took control of my head, and it tipped to the side. Kankuro walked up with the syringe. Kakashi made a move to grab him, but he evaded the arm. I felt the needle bite into my skin and muscle, the tranquilizer taking effect. I had maybe a minute and a half before it knocked me out. My voice was a rough croak, but I managed to say, "This will knock me out for about six hours. During that time I'll be almost defenseless. The only thing protecting me will be the air. My clothes are filled with my chakra and chi. They should help you if you ask them correctly. Be gentle with my body, okay?" The immobility of unconsciousness took over my body, and my mind hovered over my inert frame. I touched Kankuro and Kakashi's minds.

_Hey, guys. Yes, I'm unconscious, yes, I can see everything you're doing, but no, I can't do anything to help. Sorry this had to happen._

_Hey, Tora, do you have anything in your backpack that can help?_

_No, Kankuro, unfortunately, I don't. Ask Hogosha to bind close to my arm and leg to immobilize them._

Kakashi broke in. _Hogosha? Protector? You named your clothing?_

_No, you fool, I named what she does, and if you call her that she'll be more than happy to help. She has enough of my power running through her that she's almost a sentient being in her own right._

_It's worth a try._ "Hogosha? Tora's hurt. Her right leg and left arm are broken. Is there any chance you could bind them tight so they don't hurt her anymore?" Hogosha inspected the bonds between Kankuro and me, and found them strong and true. I felt the metal and hair constrict around my broken limbs, holding them steady and keeping the ends of the bone from rubbing against each other. Kankuro bent down and picked me up, swinging me gently into a piggyback position. Kakashi raised his eyebrows and said, "After a while, I'll carry her for a while."

"Sure. She's one hundred and thirty pounds of dead weight."

_Hey! Not nice! You'll pay for that!_ My screeching apparently hurt his mental ears and he winced. Kakashi noticed.

"She just yelled at you, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"Well, I can't say that I envy you. Although, now that I think about it, with Temari as a sibling, shouldn't you know better than to make comments on the weight of a female?"

"I guess, but I wasn't thinking. She's mad and I'm in for it." Kakashi sniggered, and I threatened him.

_Keep doing that and _you'll_ be in for it._

_Okay, okay, I surrender. Mercy!_

_Fine, you're forgiven, but no guarantees if you do it again._

The return trip was rather uneventful. Halfway to Suna, Kakashi lifted me off of Kankuro's back, settling me onto his longer, thinner back. My body sprawled bonelessly and I fumed internally. It grated on everything I've even known as right and good. I hated being helpless!

Kakashi carried me though the gates of the village and Kankuro lead him to the medics.

_Not yet. Let me wake up first. It'll be five more minutes, give or take a minute._

They agreed, and, true to my word, in four minutes and thirteen seconds my eyes opened and I regained control of my limbs. I struggled into a sitting position and drilled Kankuro with a harsh glare. "If you want off the hook easily, use your puppet master jutsu on me so I can walk into the hospital. If you don't, you are in for a world of hurt."

He gulped. "Do you mean that?"

"Extremely so. Ask Kakashi about the damage I'm capable of inflicting."

"Oh, I don't need to do that. I saw it during the fight today. I really don't want you to walk, but I'll take that option over the alternative pain."

I grunted. "Good. Now, do your stuff." The chakra strings slipped to me and attached at strategic spots on my body. It was wonderful. The puppet master supported me perfectly, keeping my body just above the floor so that taking steps didn't jar the bones. He stood up, guiding me slowly toward the door.

"Kakashi, come on. You'll need to help check her in, since my hands are busy helping her walk."

"There's one more thing- I'm going to suffer while these injuries heal at least somewhat naturally. This is non-negotiable. You can't get around it. Kankuro, if you have a problem with that, I'm still strong enough to remove these chakra strings."

"Oh, no, I don't have a problem." His thoughts were quiet, but there all the same. _It'll give me some time to make it up to her for not being there when she was fighting the majority of our attackers. I'll be her slave for the entire time she's injured._ I groaned internally. The next week or so was going to be torture.

All three of us walked into the medic center. The receptionist noticed the jutsu keeping me upright and muttered something about 'stupid ninja pride'. She called for a doctor and Kankuro guided me into the examining room. The doctor thanked him and ordered him to release the chakra strings. Kankuro wisely complied.

The doctor spent a grand total of twenty minutes inspecting the various injuries decorating my body. She clucked her tongue at my broken bones, but before she could start healing them, I help up my good hand.

"Heal them only enough to get them on their way to healing straight. I got them broken because I was careless. I need the pain as a reminder to be more cautious."

She humphed but agreed. I felt her chakra ooze over my bones, setting them smoothly and straightly. The rest of my injuries eased off in their hurting, but the pain was still there, a constantly throbbing reminder of my clumsiness. When I was stable enough to walk with care, she pushed me towards the door.

"Try not to break them again anytime soon, okay? I don't want to patch you up again."

"Sure, boss. Thanks." I shuffled outside, noticing the relieved looks on the faces of my friends. Kankuro immediately rushed to my side, propping up half of my weight. I heaved a longsuffering sigh, which he instantly misinterpreted.

"Are you okay? Do you painkillers? Sleep? Food?"

"Food sounds great. Why don't you go get some?"

"Wonderful idea! Kakashi, you look after her. Get her to her apartment."

He dashed off in a flurry of worried male and Kakashi shook his head. "I think that someone's smitten. He completely overlooked the fact that I don't know where you live. Hey, are you okay? You look like you want to hit your head against the wall."

"You're not very far off. Actually, I want to hit _his_ head against the wall. Come on, I'll show you where I live. I can't move very quickly, so it might take a little while." We walked toward my small apartment, moving fairly fast for a girl with a broken leg and a man whose normal mode is 'slouching lazy perverted slacker'. We reached my apartment, disabled the traps at my front door, and made ourselves comfortable. Kankuro barged in a minute later, carrying a bag of take-out food. He plopped it down in front of me and slapped Kakashi's hand away when he reached for it.

"She's injured and needs food. Wait until she eats her fill."

"Kankuro, I'm injured, not an invalid. You guys can eat. In fact, until you do, I'm not taking a bite." I leaned back and crossed my arms in front of my chest. Kakashi lunged for food and Kankuro reached for it, mostly to appease me. I started eating slowly, savoring the taste. Kankuro grew impatient with my slow eating habits and his hands started twitching.

I sighed, swallowed my bite of food, set my bowl down, and growled, "Kankuro, short of chewing for me- which is totally gross and not remotely possible- there is nothing you can do to make me eat faster. Nothing. Now, relax and quit treating me like a baby."

He grumbled but complied. When my appetite was satisfied, I pushed my bowl back and started to get up. Instantly- and I mean in the blink of an eye- Kankuro was beside me, picking me up, and asking me where I needed to go.

My voice's pitch dropped dangerously. "Put me down, _now_. I need to use the bathroom- yet another thing that you can't help me with. For Kami's sake, Kankuro, I _chose_ to leave my leg and arm partially unhealed. I did it because I knew it'd be good for me! Let me be myself!" I swung out of his startled grasp and stomped to the bathroom. While I was inside, I heard Kankuro's voice.

"Was it something that I did, Kakashi?"

Kakashi burst into laughter. "_Yes,_ it was something you did. You're treating her like she was five years old and barely entered in the Academy! Do you know anything about her history?"

"No." I paused with my hand at the door. I was curious about what Kakashi knew of my childhood and life before the village.

"She was born with multiple kekkai genkai in a village that despised them. At the age of seven, she watched her family die because of the kekkai genkai. Shortly after that, she killed her family's murderers. Just before her family died, Orochimaru conspired with her mother to give her a cursemark. For eight years, she wandered around from place to place, never settling down. During this time, she had almost no friendly human contact. A few months ago, she walked into our village and asked to speak to the Hokage. Since then, she's had to prove her ability multiple times. She's a tough kunoichi. Do not make the mistake of underestimating her or she will hurt you badly. Even with a broken leg and arm, she's a good enough ninja to take both of us down at the same time. You've earned her loyalty and trust, but that doesn't mean that you can't earn her wrath." I heard Kakashi's chair scrape backwards.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to try to find the books that she confiscated from me." I pushed the door open.

"Look in the bedroom, right corner, far left bank of drawers, middle drawer. They're right on top. When you come back, I'll fill in the blanks you left in your rendition of my childhood."

Kakashi shot off like a light to grab his books. He trotted back into the kitchen looking pleased with himself. In his hands he held his books and one of my stashes of chocolate. He raised his visible eyebrow at me. I nodded, and his eyes lit up. Evidently, he had a soft spot for chocolate. He chucked a bar at me and another at Kankuro. We grabbed them and dug in. Kakashi prodded me with his foot, asking me to talk about my history.

"Okay, I don't really like it when people get emotional about this, so if you must get emotional, keep it to yourself.

"Like Kakashi said, I was born and raised in a small village. In the years before my birth, rogue ninjas had decimated the village because it was an easy target. As a result, everyone with a ninja-like talent was feared and hated. Every single one of my grandparents had a kekkai genkai, but they could hide it. I was born with them, and I was young, so I couldn't. I had an older sister, but she didn't have any of them except for the Sharingan and the Byakugan. Anyway, one day, I was dumb. It had snowed and I decided to play with the snow. Unwittingly, I used my kekkai genkai and some villagers were watching. About two weeks later, they attacked my family. Because of the sheer numbers, they managed to kill my family. A week before that, my mother gave me a cursemark using venom from Orochimaru. The night of the massacre was the first time I felt the effects of the mark. My cursemark is different because of my maternal grandfather. He gave it a special seal that allows me to control it almost perfectly. That night, the horror and fury pushed me past caring about the consequences and I attacked without any feeling. I could feel something that I now recognize as bloodlust building, and I discovered the most beneficial aspect of my cursemark. Once I let its power out, my eyes start changing color. When they reach a certain color, all of my injuries heal instantly. Because of that, I destroyed the killers of my family with my other kekkai genkai. After that, I wandered. I was too young to know much, but I knew that what happened in my village could easily happen in another village, especially one with ninja in it. Accordingly, I kept to the shadow, observing people. Using my Sharingan and Byakugan, I picked up a lot of jutsus, and these helped me survive. For some reason, my cursemark makes me feel closer to animals. They helped me stay alive when I couldn't take care of myself. If it got cold, a large, furry animal would curl up next to me to keep me warm. Without them, I wouldn't be alive now. After eight years of wandering, I encountered Konoha. I watched for a while to see if it was like my home village. After I saw people with the Byakugan and Kakashi with the Sharingan, I decided that it was safe and went in. I submitted to a search and minor interrogation by ANBU Black Ops, proved my prowess and was admitted to the Academy, graduated shortly after, joined Kakashi's genin team, and a few months later activated the second stage of my cursemark. I'm not going to go into the details of that today. When the chunin exams rolled around, my teammates and I took part, although only I made chunin. Almost directly after that, I came here and that's the present day. End of story, no emotions allowed." Despite my warnings, I felt the sympathy pouring in waves off of Kankuro. He reached out to my shoulder, trying to comfort me. I shook his hand away and glared at him.

"Poor thing! I feel so sorry for you. All that grief at such a young age. Now I really want to baby you." My tightly held control snapped and I found myself yelling at Kankuro.

"THE POINT OF THE STORY WAS NOT TO MAKE YOU FEEL SORRY FOR ME! IT WAS TO ILLUSTRATE THE FACT THAT I AM NOT A WEAKLING, HAVE NEVER BEEN A WEAKLING, AND DO NOT PLAN ON CHANGING THAT FACT! YOU AND YOUR MOTHER HEN ATTITUDE ARE _THIS CLOSE_ TO MAKING ME SNAP AGAIN! IF YOU CAN'T RESTRAIN IT, I WILL HAVE TO HURT YOU!_"_

Kakashi started chuckling, then laughing outright. My head swiveled to him and I drilled him with a killing glare. "**If you don't stop laughing I will hurt you too!**" I took a few steps toward him, my entire body showing my seriousness and intent to harm. He held up his hands in surrender and started backing up, tripping over his chair.

"Easy, easy! I surrender! I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" The rational part of my mind- where was it when I was screeching at Kankuro?- came back at the perfect time to keep me from hurting Kakashi. I nodded and turned back to Kankuro. He looked astonished at me.

His voice was very small as he said, "I'm really sorry. I didn't know that my hovering was annoying. You just mean a lot to me, so I don't want you to suffer. Please forgive me?'"

His masculine 'survive the furious female' instinct took control of his tongue and he said the exactly correct things. I felt my female dragon subside, mollified. I thought back, thinking about any possible causes for my outburst and realized that I was nearing my certain time of the month. I groaned internally and sat back down.

"I forgive you _this once_. Next time, even those instincts honed by living around Temari your whole life won't save you. Now, all I want to do is sleep for a while. Go away." They jumped for the door as quickly as possible. As soon as the door shut, I walked to my small bedroom and slumped onto my bed. I gathered the air and sent two very serious apology birds, containing the reason for my outbursts. They twittered and shot out to find Kakashi and Kankuro, and I went to sleep.

I woke up to an idiot agonizing over whether it was safe for someone to sleep that deeply. My instincts took over and I slammed kunai and shuriken toward the noisy, irritating intruder. I heard Kakashi laugh.

"Kankuro, if you want to stay in one piece, I suggest that you leave her alone and let her sleep. Did you forget the fact that she yelled at both of us last night?'

I heard a gulp. "Yes." Kankuro dodged out of my room just in time to avoid some more projectiles. I went back to sleep, plotting revenge.

Once I finally decided to get up, I went searching for Temari. I found her sitting calmly at a small ramen shop. I sat on the stool next to her, ordered some ramen, and waited patiently for her to notice me.

"Hey, Tora. What do you need?"

"Kankuro is trying to annoy me to death. I want to torture him in return. Any ideas?"

"Hmm. You're a girl after my own heart. As it turns out, he's annoyed me recently, so I want revenge. I'll help you."

We spent the next several hours plotting. Finally, we came up with the perfect plan. We would sneak into his apartment- the one place he feels totally secure- and rig every inch of it with traps. Paint bombs, electrical shocks, oily floors, and buckets of icy water. When we finished, I used my willpower to make all the traps undetectable, and added to the last trap. I attached a note that said, 'Next time you annoy me it'll be much, much worse. T+T." Temari and I sat back and waited for the fun to begin.

I was using an invisibility/intangibility jutsu so I could watch the fun and not get caught, either in the traps or by Kankuro. He walked through his door and stepped on the first trigger plate. A bucket of water landed on his head, followed by a bucket of ultra-stick glitter. That wasn't coming off quickly. He screeched and padded carefully toward his bathroom. Somehow, he avoided one of the traps, but I wasn't worried. He pushed open the door, breaking the connection of a chi string and making paint pour over his body. I saw him start fuming. He turned the handle of his sink and it exploded, sending water all over the room- water mixed with neon food dyes. He gave a blood-curdling scream of fury, looking madly around for the cause. He hesitantly went over to his shower, turned the handle, and jumped back. I laughed mentally. For the shower, the trap was timed for three minutes in. He stepped into the shower after stripping down. I set up a mental block so that I didn't get scarred, and waited. As he was trying to wash the glitter and paint off, the shower trap triggered, pouring hair dye out. It hit his hair, taking root and almost instantly turning his hair various neon colors. He screeched, waving his arms. He jumped out of the shower- and triggered a slippery spot. His arms and legs waved like crazy, trying to stop himself from making the close acquaintance of the tile floor. He failed, of course, and got several bruises for his efforts.

I saw resignation cross his face. He hurriedly put clean clothes on, went to his bedroom, and hopped into his bed. From Temari, I knew he was afraid of lizards- weird for a guy who lived in the desert- so I had several lizards stuck in his bed. One of them raced over his feet and he shrilled out a terrified scream. I laughed, recording everything with my Sharingan to share with Temari later. I was having so much _fun_. He shot out of bed and ran to his couch. As soon as he sat down, a mild shock coursed through his body. It made his already noticeable hair stand on end. He ran for his door and tripped the final trap- another electrical shock, this one strong enough to make his entire body stiffen for a millisecond. The piece of paper floated down to his hand. He looked at it and his eyes grew round. He bolted for the door and ran in the direction of Temari. I undid my twin jutsus and sprinted for Temari, grabbing Kakashi on my way.

We reached Temari a few seconds before Kankuro did. He saw us, fell on his knees, and started pleading for mercy.

"I surrender! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I'll never do it again! I'm sorry! I surrender." My eyebrows rose dramatically and I looked at Temari. She nodded, and I knelt down by Kankuro.

"We forgive you, Kankuro. Get up, you're making a fool of yourself." Kakashi burst in snickers at that. Two furious female heads swiveled around to him.

"Do you want to make us annoyed at you, too, Kakashi? You're pushing the limits of toleration by laughing at our servant."

Kankuro raised his head and muttered, "I don't remember agreeing to that." I rapped his head.

"Hush. Don't interrupt. Well, Kakashi, answer the question. Do you want us mad at you?"

He gulped and started backing up. "N-no. Sorry! I won't do it again."

"Good. Now, who's hungry?" I felt the two males minds scream in agony at the sudden mood swing coming from Temari and me. They followed us meekly toward a restaurant. As we ate, they kept sneaking glances at us, trying to gauge or moods. We laughed even more about it.

It took another four weeks for anything interesting to happen in Suna. By that time, Minato and Shikamaru were part of our team, and I noticed the feelings that Shikamaru had for Temari. For laughs, I finagled it around so that she joined our team. Shikamaru went nuts trying to protect her and she tried several times to destroy him.

Later, Kakashi challenged me to a taijutsu match. I groaned internally, knowing that I was assured of losing. We found the only empty training ground, and took our stances. I let him attack first, trying to avoid the blows but taking a royal pounding. I got in a few kicks, but didn't damage him much. When he pinned me, I felt the sore points of multiple bruises forming. Kakashi rolled off my back and held his hand out to help me up.

"Have you always been bad at taijutsu?"

"Yeah. I'm usually good at dodging attacks, but I suck at landing physical blows without using jutsus. I know, it's a fault, but no matter how hard I try, I can't improve. I guess that it's my body's way of making sure that I don't go past the point of human abilities. I know, I need to work on it, but with chi and chakra, usually I can get by without taijutsu."

"Well, okay, but work on it, please. If you run out of chi and chakra, you'll be at the mercy of anyone. It's not a good thought." I nodded, mentally rolling my eyes. _Yeah, right. If I could do taijutsu at all, I wouldn't be nursing bruises right now. Speaking of bruises, I need to fix them_. I used my healing chakra to patch myself enough that Kankuro wouldn't throw a hissy fit and try to baby me again.

The day that Choji arrived in Suna, he, Shikamaru, and Ino went off for lunch. I was curious, so I sent part of my consciousness to listen to them. I heard a very interesting conversation.

Choji opened the ball accidently. "Temari really seems to like you, Shikamaru."

Ino hit him over the head. "Idiot! I thought we agreed to talk about this later! Still, Shikamaru, Asuma told me to keep an eye on you two. Tell Temari that you like her. If you don't…"

Shikamaru nodded. "Love is so troublesome, though. Can't I just write her a letter?"

"NO! She's a girl! She'll be seriously hurt if you send her a letter. Now, go." Shikamaru pushed away from the table and went searching for Temari. I followed, curious about Temari's reaction.

When Shikamaru found her, she was watching the sunset. He walked right up to her, turned her head, and kissed her. Her hands moved randomly for a few seconds, then settled on the back of his neck. When he broke the kiss, she was quick to regain control of her senses. She decked him with a well-aimed punch to the chin. Shikamaru scraped himself off of the floor, cradling his jaw.

"What was that for?"

"You think it's funny to mess with my emotions by kissing me when it doesn't mean anything?' She aimed another blow at him, and he barely ducked in time.

"I thought the kiss was clear about its meaning!"

"No, it wasn't! A kiss doesn't mean anything without emotions backing it up! Either you love me, which is great, or you don't, in which case I'll pulverize you. Which is it?"

"I think I love you."

"THINK?" This time, the punch caught him directly on the nose. His bright fresh blood rolled down his face, and he howled.

"Okay, I KNOW that I love you!" Instantly, Temari calmed down.

"Good." She reached a gentle hand up to his face, trying to fix the break. I decided to help. I passed some healing chakra over his face, stopping the bleeding and healing his nose straight. He shrugged it off as a 'troublesome occurrence' and moved to kiss Temari again. I took that as my cue to go away.

By the time I returned to my body, it was well past bedtime. I walked to my door and unlocked it. That was the standard invitation for Kankuro to snuggle with me during the night. I felt him crawl in behind me, nuzzling his nose into my neck. I relaxed, nestling into his chest.

When we woke up the next morning, it was to the insistent noise of a messenger hawk rapping on the window. I stumbled over, grabbed the message, and thanked the bird. I unrolled it and instantly came fully awake. It said:

_Torabaru Denja and Minato Senju are ordered to return to the Hidden Leaf Village by the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju. There they will undergo specialized training for infiltration missions._ It bore the signature and the personal seal of Tsunade, so I had to obey. I kissed Kankuro goodbye, grabbed Minato on my way, and we started walking toward Konoha.

That night, I noticed that Minato was slightly jumpy about something. I asked, "What's the matter?"

"I'm worried about this 'training' we're supposed to do. It's nothing." I took his word for it and ate my meal. After ten minutes, I started feeling really sleepy and knew that something was off.

"Minato, the Hokage never sent us a message, did she?"

"No. I'm tired of being a lowly, unrecognized genin in Konoha. I made a deal with Taka, which is allied with Akatsuki. Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"It takes a long time for any sedative except the special one I put in my kits to take effect. The one in my kit is the only one that I can wake up from in a normal amount of time. I'll probably be out of things for at least a week. Take care of my…" My body stopped obeying my commands. I had lied to Minato- any sedative other than the special one had almost no effect on me. I could choose when to wake up. I pulled my mind out of my body, watching the surroundings.

A tall, blond-haired, purple-eyed man showed up. "This the girl?"

"Yeah. She just went under not that long ago. She's crazy heavy when she's unconscious, so you'll have to carry her, Suigetsu."

"Whatever." He grabbed my body and slung me roughly over his shoulder, letting my head swing down by his sword. I fumed internally at the rough treatment, but I was helpless. I kept careful tabs on our direct so I could lead help back to my body. We went toward the mountains, steering a straight course for a small gap. It was so obvious that no one would ever think about looking there for Akatsuki. They opened a door in the wall of the cliff, and I marked it with a small amount of my chi. I had left a clear trail of chi from where I was captured to the hideout.

I felt someone sling my body onto a hard bed. A strange, rough voice, filled with absolutely no emotion stared speaking. My mental self oriented toward it and I saw a plainly Uchiha person.

"Suigetsu, you and Minato are in charge of watching her until she wakes up. When she does, one of you immobilize her and the other one come get me. Suigetsu, do this right and you can use her any way you want to when she's no longer of any use to me. Minato, do this right and you'll be a part of Taka. Treat her body well." He whirled around, walking out of the room. My entire mind screamed in outrage, but I tamped it down and scrambled away.

I flew back to Suna, going through my options for getting help. I dismissed Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji, which narrowed my options down to Kankuro and Kakashi. I eliminated Kakashi because I didn't want to live in a mind that was saturated in porn, which left Kankuro. I found him and slipped into his dream.

"Um, Kankuro? I have bad news. Minato is a traitor, he got help from Akatsuki to kidnap me, and I need some help to get out. Can I borrow part of your mind until you get where I am? That way I can lead you directly there and you can use some of my kekkai genkai."

"Sure, but when we get you out you have to explain."

"Okay. I really need to quit being so trusting of my friends. That's a giant chink in my armor. Thank you." I swirled out of his dream and into part of his mind. He went hunting for Kakashi, and persuaded him to help. It was easy. As soon as he mentioned Akatsuki, Kakashi was ready. They recruited Temari, Shikamaru, and Choji, then headed out, following my guidance. I shot them like an arrow toward the hideout. After half a day, Kankuro must have mostly forgotten about me, and he started entertaining fantasies about me and him in bed having sex. When they started getting graphic, I stopped him. _Kankuro, I am in here, and you're going to make me barf if you don't stop. It's not that I don't like the idea; it's just that watching it is seriously sickening._

_Sure. Sorry._ He stopped, and the next day passed quickly. We reached the hideout in record time, and I asked Kankuro, _I'll help you, but you need to learn how to use my kekkai genkai in a hurry. Reach inside yourself to a lake of power. No, that's your chakra. Use that. It's your chi. Now, force your will over the earth in front of your face. Make it submit and force it to make a doorway. Good job! I'll lead you to where you need to go, but the blonde with the purple eyes is my meat. Tell Kakashi that his job is Minato._ Kankuro complied, and we rushed through the tunnels. I felt most of the people evacuating, but one was stupid enough to get caught in a dead end. Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji went to take care of him. That left Kakashi and Kankuro against Minato and me against the Suigetsu dude. I felt the irrational rage of a mistreated woman flooding my veins, and I counted my good luck at being matched against a swordsman. That would be easy.

When Kakashi and Kankuro reached my room, I split from Kankuro, but not before warning him. _Stay out of my fight. I trust myself, you, and Kakashi, but there is no way that I trust that guy._

_Of course. I'm not dumb enough to interfere in your revenge fight. I learned my lesson about annoying you. I'm not anxious to try it again. I'll help Kakashi take care of Minato and then keep them out of your hair._

_Thanks._

_No problem._

I re-entered my body, pulling it out of the fog of unconsciousness. Minato and Suigetsu noticed, just as Kakashi and Kankuro burst into the room. Kakashi was confident, and rightly so. Minato was as far from a threat as anyone could get. Suigetsu moved towards them, but I grabbed him and opened up a large area for our battle.

"You treated my body very roughly. I don't appreciate that. Now, I want to kick your butt."

He smirked, drew his sword, and attacked. I moved to the side, dodging easily. He swung again, and again I dodged. He swore and attacked head on. I drove a kunai into his side, and it was my turn to swear. He was practically made of water. Any physical wound turned into water and healed instantly. Suddenly a very good point appeared in my mind.

"You know, this just got a whole lot easier."

He gulped, scared of the tone of my voice. I raised my hand, calling to the water in his body. Because it was a human body, it fought. I lost control briefly, and just barely dodged another attack.

I grabbed control of his body again, forcing him to back up against the wall. Using my other hand, I clasped earthen shackles around his wrists. I turned my back to check on Kakashi and Kankuro. They had Minato pinned, tied, and knocked unconscious. I heard a strange noise behind me whirled around. Suigetsu was free somehow, and he had his sword back. My eyes narrowed and I revised my position on destroying enemies. Normally, I tried to keep them alive, but someone this stubborn needed to die. Just on the off-chance that he had needed information, I asked Kakashi, "Should I keep him alive or destroy him now?"

"Keep him alive, then take him back to Konoha. I'm sure that ANBU Black Ops can get some information out of him."

"Okay. No guarantees, though."

"Of course not." I called to the earth, pulling a large amount of metal up. I formed it into a canister large enough to hold a good amount of water. I pulled the water from the earth up and stuck a small portion of it into the bottom of the canister. Preparations done, I switched my focus to the smirking, sneering idiot across the room from me.

My hand flashed out, snaring control again, and I focused exclusively on making him assume his liquid form. His eyes grew wide and he lost the smirk. I felt the water struggling, trying to stay in his human form, but my will pushed harder onto him. The form collapsed, turning him into a puddle of fluid. I pushed it into the canister and sealed it off. I was very confident, reading his fear of being encased in water. It was his one weakness. Any part of him submerged in water had to stay water, and there was enough water to cover his entire body in his trap.

I swung it onto my back, melding the metal in my shirt and tunic into a gripping tool to help the container stay on my back. Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji ran into the room. Ino shot venomous glares at Minato, Shikamaru ignored him, and Choji just glanced at him. I mentally asked Kakashi to take care of transporting him, and turned to Shikamaru.

"How did your fight go?"

"Pretty good. We're all a little banged up, but the guy's dead, so that's good. Ino can't patch us up because she used so much chakra trying to weaken the dude."

"I can fix the injuries, no problem. Show them to me." They had several scrapes each, and I carefully gave Ino enough of my chakra to hold her until her natural source built up again. She perked up almost instantly, and we headed toward Konoha.

By that night, I felt Suigetsu trying to reform, but it wasn't working. He didn't have enough chakra to force a reformation, and I wasn't about to let him out. I planted his cage in a safe spot, curled up around it, and went to sleep.

What woke me up in the middle of the night was Kakashi and Kankuro talking. Kakashi was muttering, "I'm worried about what'll happen when we get back to Konoha. Tsunade isn't exactly a patient, forgiving woman, although she likes the kid. Jiraiya's in town, Ebisu stays in town, and together those two are capable of driving Tora up the wall.'

Shikamaru's voice broke in. "Ino, Choji, and I can handle Ebisu. Are you three together capable of handling Jiraiya?"

"Are you kidding? She can handle both of them easily, but her temper isn't always under perfect control. If she loses it, the best case scenario involves a whole ton of screeching, several bruises, and an hour of sitting next to her and being silent so that she'll calm down. The worst-case scenario involves either her committing murder, or her removing various body parts from them- without anesthetic. The most likely outcome is one of them getting an amazingly hard pounding and a royal lecture. Ask Kankuro about the effects of her temper. It's not pleasant."

Kankuro spoke up. "What do you mean, sitting beside her waiting for her to calm down?"

"When she's really furious or sad, she clams up. Trying to pry things out of her fails miserably. She finds a high point and sits until she expends all of her emotion. The process speeds up if someone sits beside her, saying nothing. If she wants to talk, she'll do it. If she doesn't, nothing in the world can make her talk. I'm just hoping that she'll give me a little warning so that I can get out of the blast range."

"Yeah, me too. I absorbed all of the yelling I can take when it was just her, Kakashi, and me."

I decided that it was time to give them the surprise of their lives. "I really don't appreciate being talked about like I'm not even here." All three of them elevated several inches. "Kakashi, Kankuro, I'm surprised. Either of you should know me well enough to realize when I'm asleep or just pretending sleep."

"Sorry. We'll quit talking now."

"Good." I rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that everyone was still asleep. I grinned. This was the perfect opportunity to get back at Kakashi, Kankuro, and Shikamaru for waking me up. Now, what should I do? Oh, yeah. I made the sand underneath them turn into a soft, fluffy mass that slowly swallowed them, everything except their heads. I whooped happily, waking up the camp. "Okay, guys, look at the cards and weep! This is what happens to people foolish enough to keep me awake at night by talking about me." The three idiots struggled out of the sand and started shaking themselves off.

"Okay, I cave. I won't do it again."

"Girls are such a drag, but I agree with Kankuro. Sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, Sorry. It won't happen again."

"Good." We headed toward Konoha at lightning speed. We walked through the gates, and I felt dread creeping through my bones. I really didn't want to face Tsunade.

We reached the Hokage's Tower without incident, and, because of Kankuro's position as liaison between the villages, we were instantly admitted to her office. She looked surprised at the sheer number of people.

"Hey, I called for Tora, not you guys. Did the entire Konoha group decide to come back? Why's Minato tied up, and what is that metal canister?"

"Well, the message got garbled, Minato turned traitor, and the canister holds a Taka/Akatsuki member. Um, are you mad?"

"Yes, Kakashi, I am mad. Tora, can you give me a better synopsis?"

"Sure. A few days ago in Suna, we received a hawk bearing your seal. It said that Minato and I were supposed to come back to Konoha for special training. We left immediately, and that night a member of Taka- the guy in the canister- showed up after Minato knocked me out with a drug. They transported me to Taka's hideout, and the group you see behind me caught up. We engaged the enemy in battle, killing one and capturing Minato and this dude. We then came directly to Konoha to attempt to sort out the mess."

"Kakashi, were you taking notes? That is how you deliver a report. Remember it. Now, Tora, show me the prisoner."

"I'd rather wait until we get him in a more secure location. He can change his body into water at will, and he's hard to stop."

"Fine. I'm actually not mad. You were supposed to come here, but the rest of the group is extra. When we get done here, report to Ibiki. Now, I want to talk to you four." She pointed at Kankuro, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji. I took the hint and leaned against the wall near the door. A few minutes later, I heard a distinctive set of footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Aw, great!"

Kakashi looked over at me, tearing his gaze from his book. "What's the matter?"

"Jiraiya's coming." Kakashi quickly backed off to the side, getting out of range. The door burst open, and I was directly in the line of sight. Unfortunately, Tsunade was busy talking to the other four and didn't notice.

"Hey, little lady, you look like peaches and strawberries today, if you catch my meaning." My previous pledge to myself that I wouldn't try to kill him fled instantly.

"What did you say?" Kakashi backed up farther and tried to hide behind a file cabinet. Jiraiya gulped.

"I said you looked like peaches and strawberries?"

"Correct. Now, I take extreme offence to that comment." I sent my metal lunging, binding him to the floor. I stupidly left his hands free, and he frantically made the hand seals for summoning. I heard a small 'pop', and a little black toad appeared. Jiraiya stared.

"Where're Gamabunta and Gamakichi? I tried to summon one of them."

"Look, you only put out enough chakra to summon me, not my dad or granddad. Now, whaddaya want me to do?"

"Protect me from that!" He gestured toward me. The toad took one look at me, the fire crackling in my eyes, the tension in my body, and the killing intent radiating from my chakra, and took the smart route.

"Not a chance!" He quickly went back to wherever he came from, leaving Jiraiya alone to face my wrath. Tsunade finally noticed the ruckus.

"Hey, what's going on? Why is Jiraiya tied up?"

"He told me that, quote, 'You look like peaches and strawberries, if you catch my meaning.' I now want to hurt him."

"_He did WHAT? JI__**RA**__**YA!**_" I heard Naruto's thoughts. _Grandma Tsunade's yelling at Pervy Sage again? That's the tenth time this morning. Time to get out of the way._ Tsunade joined me in glaring at Jiraiya.

"Now, now, Tsunade, let's not get hasty."

"Hasty? _Hasty?_ You profess love to me last night and today you hit on Tora?"

"Um, yes?" Wrong answer. Tsunade swelled up even more.

"Tora, how strong is your punch?"

"Right now? Strong enough to do a lot of damage."

"Good. Let's begin."

"I. Do. Not. Appreciate. You. Perving. On. Me!" I punctuated each word with a poke on a sensitive pressure point. He yelped each time. Tsunade geared up for a pounding.

"_I expected this from you several weeks ago, but now I am so furious! How could you do this, you pervert?"_ Jiraiya ended up looking like someone had dumped blue, black, and yellow dye all over him. Tsunade finally ran out of fury, and I sent Jiraiya flying out the window. He landed near Naruto.

"Naruto! Tell Jiraiya that I want that metal back within ten minutes! If he doesn't I'll hurt him more!"

"Sure thing, Tora! You know, Pervy Sage, it's not smart to anger two females, especially when one of them is Grandma Tsunade!"

"Yeah, kid, I realize that now."

I turned back to Tsunade. "Well, now that that's taken care of, what did you need to see me for? Kakashi, quit hiding. I'm not going to attack. Kankuro, relax. I'm also not going to yell." The two intelligent people in the room edged out of their hiding places, still watching me warily.

"I called you here because I wanted to promote you to jonin. For that, I need you to undergo torture resistance training and solitary mission training. Ibiki will be in charge of the torture resistance training, and he'll explain the parameters when you make your way to T&I. The solitary mission training is various challenges that a solitary ninja faces. You'll be doing them through a genjutsu- no, you can't dispel it. When you finish the training, it will dispel on its own. Good luck. Ibiki's outside the door." I exited the room as Tsunade started going over the mission details with the other people. Ibiki was nowhere in sight.

"I know where you are, Ibiki. I can feel your chakra. You might as well come out." The genjutsu wavered and fell apart, showing Ibiki's smile.

"Good job, kid. You passed the first part of the test. Come on." He led me back to the building I entered first when I came to Konoha, but, instead of taking me to the room, he took me on a different route. He pointed me towards a chair in the middle of the room. "This test ends when you get out, and it starts now." I sat down and seals snaked over my arms and leg, tying me down and suppressing my chakra. I watched as he hunkered down in front of me.

"Are you afraid of pain?"

I gave him a clear, calm look, ignoring his question. Mentally pushing up an impenetrable wall, I prepared myself for the worst. He turned away, and I watched alertly. He muttered something, turning back around. In his hand rested a red-hot kunai and he moved it toward my eyes. "The only way to save your vision is to talk. Tell me everything about your village."

"I'd rather not." I glared at the kunai, and it melted in his hands. Boiling hot metal splashed over him, including some very important pieces. He yelped, waving his hands around.

"OW! DAMN! That hurt, you- GAH! I can't think of a word that's bad enough!"

"There's nothing in the rules that says that a prisoner can't fight back if offered an opportunity, and you have to admit that waving metal around in front of me-especially when it's already hot- is just asking for pain. Now, is this test over when I get loose?"

"Yeah."

"In that case, hasta la vista!" I poured my chi into the seals, short circuiting them and freeing myself. I faded into the floor and was gone, hitting the Hokage's office in under twenty seconds.

"Okay, one chunin reporting after a failed interrogation attempt. Now, what's the deal with the next test?" Tsunade gaped at me, halfway through a rant at Kakashi about his little orange books.

"Um, Tsunade? Earth to Tsunade! HEY! Talk to me!"

She stuttered, "Did Ibiki let you out? What did he have you contained in?"

"No, I escaped from this weird chair with seals on it."

Kakashi's jaw dropped. "You escaped from the chair? How?"

"Well, seals are made of chakra and ink, and chi is the anti-chakra, so it's quite easy for chi to disrupt chakra, and vice-versa, but I'm the only chi-user in the world, so I don't have any worries. Now, someone was going to put me in a genjutsu for the next part of the test?"

Tsunade gathered her wits and called for Kurenai, who slapped me in a time intensive genjutsu of a long, hectic retrieval mission. Thankfully, the genjutsu took about five minutes of real time while covering three weeks of illusion time, so I got out of it fairly early in the day. I stumbled, and Kankuro caught me.

"What's the verdict?"

"You did better than most of the jonin candidates, which means that so far you've passed with flying colors. There's a single test left- you have to fight another jonin with a significant handicap. Kakashi says that you rely on your vision like crazy, what with your kekkai genkai, so we're using chakra to seal your vision. This plays along with the person you're fighting- a Hyuga, Hiashi to be precise. I wish you luck. Teleport to training ground 19. A medic and your opponent will meet you there. It's up to you if you want spectators."

"I don't care if people watch or not. Heck, send a shadow clone to watch the fight while the real you does your jobs. It doesn't matter." I wafted away in a small swirl of leaves, arriving in front of the medic. He placed his hand over my eyes.

"This block simulates a total removal of your eyes. It's like your eyeballs were ripped out. No Byakugan, no Sharingan, no dojutsu. Now, I'm in charge of policing this fight. It's your choice if you want me to step in before anyone dies. Just yell 'Yield!' and it's over."

I nodded and stepped back. Let the games begin.

I flared my chi out, feeling for the locations of everything on the field. I sensed Hiashi's smirk coming from his mind, and reacted accordingly, dodging to the left to avoid his strike, poking his shoulder pressure point. He squalled, and I grinned, my hands flashing through hand seals for the Great Fireball jutsu. It flooded toward his chakra signature, but he substituted out of the way. I felt him behind me, and tried something. I switched places with him, causing him to run into a tree. It felt great. I smiled, turning myself loose for the first time in ages.

He came racing up behind me, and I back flipped across the field. He charged, snarling, and I sensed one of his arms hanging useless. I called the air to my will, slowing him down. He poured his chakra into his feet and kept coming. I pulled a wall of earth up to the level of his knees, and he tripped, sprawling into the ground. He sent chakra flooding towards me, and, unfortunately, it hit. Parts of my legs became paralyzed, and I snarled. He wanted a rough, no-holds-barred fight, he could have it. I forced Hogosha to take care of my legs, moving them as needed, and flew toward Hiashi. She misjudged distance, and I tripped over a _tree root_. Now, who was the idiot who put a tree root right in front of my foot? I had no idea, but I suspected that his name was Murphy. Anyway, I tripped and went sprawling forward. I hear a cry of triumph behind me, and kept going, letting the ground close over me, welcoming me into its embrace. Once beneath the surface, I could feel the footsteps, heartbeats, and breathing of the people above me. I sent my chi through the ground, softening the earth beneath Hiashi, and sucked him down, leaving only his head above ground. I popped back up to the surface and forced the chakra out of my eyes in time to see the incredulous looks from the spectators. Kakashi looked like he needed to scrape his jaw off of the floor with a spatula, then have it surgically re-attached to his head. Most of the other shared his expression.

"Okay, earth to people. Tsunade, did I pass?"

She stammered for a few seconds, then said, "Hell, yeah, you passed. Everyone, meet Konoha's newest jonin. Tora, you have three days to rest before I expect you at the mission desk, ready to work." She left, and I smiled, turned around, and left Hiashi neck-deep in the ground. I heard him yelling at me, ordering me to let him go. I turned back to him.

"Look. I am not a Hyuga, and I am a jonin- your rank. Therefore, you have absolutely no authority over me. I refuse to let you control me. When you figure out how or someone takes pity on you, you'll get out of the dirt. Until them, enjoy it. I'm leaving." I wheeled around and stalked off, my head held high. No Hyuga was ever going to order me around.

Emerging into Konoha proper, Kankuro found me. I could feel his hesitance and uncertainty. "Tora, can I talk to you?"

"Sure." I followed him to the top of the Hokage monument, unhappy about the direction of his thoughts.

He faced me. "Tora, I can't do this. I can't go through with an inter-village relationship, especially with a fellow shinobi. I'm breaking off our relationship. This is goodbye." He walked away, and I felt my heart cracking into a million pieces. My legs gave out, and I collapsed. My shoulders shook with silent sobs, and my anguish poured out over the world, seeking anyone similar to me, and calling them. Several souls felt my cry and answered, moving toward me. One was in Suna, one was somewhere in the Land of Lightning, and the third person was in the Cloud village. The screaming of my heart tapered off as I sent my mind toward each person, figuring out who it was.

It surprised me. The person in Suna was Gaara, and evidently my call was strong enough to pull them toward me. I knew Gaara, so my mind flitted toward Lightning. I found two people, one of whom was arguing with the other. I eavesdropped shamelessly.

"_Come on, Kakuzu! Something's telling me to go that way! Toward Konoha!"_

"_Hidan, I have no interest in going to a place where I can't make money."_

"_But think about it! It's a large village! There's gotta be something you can do there! Besides, even if you don't go, I'm heading that way."_

Okay, I called a missing-nin. No worries, if I couldn't reform him, I could neutralize him. Now, who else?

In Cloud, a young woman with a scarred face was packing her belongings and leaving the village. She placed her forehead protector at the feet of her Kage, and resigned her position as a chunin. Okay, so I called three ninja. That was great! They were like myself- more than slightly broken. I felt the despair in their hearts and it mirrored mine.

While I waited for my new friends, I kept tabs on them. The Akatsuki member kept swearing, so I tuned him out until I heard his companion bring up a strange subject.

"_Hidan, you do realize that there are three shinobi in Konoha who will gladly kill me, right? After all, I killed that chain-smoking teacher of theirs. I hardly think that they'll be very forgiving."_

"_Jashin damn you, Kakuzu! DIE!" Hidan swung his scythe, destroying his companion. The other man coughed._

"_Damn, Hidan. You managed to pick the time that I only had one heart." The silver-haired man walked off, leaving his friend to bleed to death in the sand._

I pulled back to reality when I felt a gentle hand tough my shoulder. I looked up and saw Gaara. His face softened when he saw the tear-tracks running down my cheeks.

"What happened? I felt something call me here."

"Kankuro rejected me fully. I'm sorry that I called you here. I didn't intend to do anything but cry. There are two others coming. I called the only other people in the world with fractured hearts like mine. Why are you here so quickly?"

"I was already coming. I guess now isn't the best time to confess something to you, is it?"

"You might as well. It can't ruin my day any more than it already is."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I've, well, kinda liked you since I first met you. I was jealous of Kankuro, but I had nothing to do with him rejecting you."

I smiled at him. "Thank you for telling me, but I'm not ready for another relationship this quickly. Can you wait for a while?"

"I can wait forever and a day, if I need to. You aren't disgusted by my status as a jinchuriki? It makes some people nervous."

"Nah. Hey, I have a cursed seal, so it takes a lot to disturb me. The only really bad thing is perverts, and I reserve all rights to harm them greatly."

"Then there's no problem. I hate perverts too." I raised my face to the wind, drinking in the scents of life.

"You know, I turn sixteen in a few weeks. I'm not sure of the exact day, but I'll soon reach what my clan called maturity. No one would really tell me what that meant, but they said I'd come into my final inheritance. I'm slightly worried." Gaara sat down beside me, our sides lightly touching.

"Don't worry. I'll be there, and, most likely, the other two you called probably will be too."

"Thanks." We quieted, staring at the horizon until the first star winked on and Kakashi showed up.

"Hey, Tora! Hello, Gaara. Listen, Kankuro's been broadcasting over the village that you two broke up and you're an easy, loose girl. I hit him, but the damage is done, so I want to take you two to dinner. There's a tradition that all new jonins get taken to the Underground Restaurant, so let's go. Gaara, you're welcome to come. It's not like it's a date or anything. Kurenai would kill me if I tried cheating on her. Well, come on!" We all got up and marched off toward Konoha proper.

Kakashi led us on a long, roundabout route to a small door in an alley. When I asked him about the door, he told me that the owner was a former ninja who only wanted ninja in his establishment. To ensure this, he made the entrance one long set of traps. Getting in unscathed involved using jonin-level ninja skills. He also told me that the man could sense dojutsu, so not to use them. I agreed, but kept my chi and chakra spread around in front of me. My senses lit up with the chakra of several traps, and I knew to be careful. Kakashi led us carefully past blades dripping poison, strategically placed tree roots, and trip wires, until we reached a place that appeared clear. He was about to take a step forward when my chi-seeing eyes picked up the traces of seals on the ceiling, left wall, and floor.

"No! The right wall's clear, but the rest have seals on them. I wouldn't risk it." We used our chakra to walk on the wall until we met the end of the entrance and a door in the opposite wall. A small, three by three foot square of floor was safe, so I flipped around and opened the door. Kakashi and Gaara quickly followed, and the owner walked up to greet us.

"Ah, Kakashi, I was wondering when you'd come again. Who are your friends?"

"The girl is Tora, Konoha's newest jonin, and the guy is Gaara, the Kazekage of Suna. I brought them here because they needed it. Now, whatever suits is fine for dinner."

We walked to a secluded table in the back, all of us instinctively placing our backs to a wall. I noticed Kakashi rubbing his Sharingan, and a thought popped into my head.

"Kakashi, I might be able to fix your problem with your Sharingan. It sucks your power because you aren't Uchiha, right? Well, I'm Uchiha, so by giving you a little of my blood it should recognize you as part of the clan and allow you to turn it off and on at will. In fact, it should give you a second Sharingan. Are you willing to try it?"

"I've contemplated never using it again because it's started draining more and more of my chakra. Yes, I'm willing to try." He cut his wrist and extended it toward me. I cut my hand and lined up the cuts, forcing my blood into his body. I willed the Uchiha blood to accept him and heard him gasp. I looked up and saw a revealed, fully matured Sharingan eye outside his forehead protector. I closed the cuts and walked him through the procedure for turning it off and on. He flicked it back and forth, getting used to having two eyes at all times. It was funny, like a five year old at Christmas.

"Kakashi. Stop. Your body needs to fully integrate the Uchiha blood, and I'm not sure if there'll be any other effects passed along. I have numerous kekkai genkai, and you might have another now. What's your principle chakra type?"

"Lightning."

"Try to, without using chakra, make a spark of lightning on your fingertip." His face screwed up as he concentrated, and I felt the shift in his nature as he finally accessed his chi. It bloomed, hot and violent, along his fingertips. His eyes opened, glimpsed the lightning, widened comically, and his mouth opened in a yelp. When his focus drifted from feeding it with chi, the sparks died and the owner of the restaurant came back as he tried to light it them again.

"Kakashi, remember the rules? No jutsu in my building."

"But, it's not a jutsu! It's a new kekkai genkai."

"Nuh-uh. I'll let it slide this time, but stop it. If I break the rules for one person, I have to break the rules for everyone. Now, eat."

He set food down in front of us, and we dug in. When we finished eating, we ordered some light sake and talked quietly and peacefully for several hours. When we split up, Gaara made the off-handed comment that he needed to go kill his brother. Kakashi and I chuckled, and I headed into the woods to get some sleep.

What woke me up was Hidan wandering around underneath my chosen tree and muttering. "I can feel the pull right here, but no one's fuckin' here! Jashin, are you doing this on purpose to test me?"

I dropped to the ground in front of him. "No, I accidently called you here when my heart fractured yesterday. My name's Tor-AH!" I ducked a swipe from his scythe, but a strange figure materialized between us. He glared at Hidan.

"I'm ashamed of you, Hidan. Attacking one of Lady Luck's favored, and now, because I lost a bet with Lady Luck, one of my favored? You should be ashamed of yourself. Oh, by the way, my _name_ is Death, not Jashin. Bungling priests."

Hidan hit the floor in a full bow. "I'm sorry, Lord Death! She jumped down in front of me!"

"That's no excuse, Hidan. Now, this girl will become part of your nakama. Treat her as such. In other words, she's your new sister. That means arguing and sparring are fine, but trying to truly kill each other is frowned upon. Remember this."

He was just about to disappear when I yelled, "Wait!"

When he turned back around, his eyes looked old and annoyed. "Impudent mortal, what do you want?"

"A bet. Let's play a game of poker. If I win, you grant me the ability to curse things and objects to any part of your realm. If you win, I will release you from your bond to Lady Luck." He grabbed me by the shoulders.

"You mean that?"

"Of course I do. Now, do we have a deal?"

"Of course we do! All we need is a deck of cards."

"If you want to go invisible and follow me, I can get us that."

"Sure!" I felt him hovering behind me as I walked back toward the village. Remembering something, I turned toward Hidan.

"You need to ditch the cloak and sandals."

"Why?"

"They scream Akatsuki. Now, I have some stuff in one of my caves that you can use. Follow me."

I walked to my primary storage cave and told Hidan to find some clothes that would fit him while I waited outside.

Twenty long minutes later, he walked out in a loose pair of soft, almost black, cotton pants and an even looser, lighter, long-sleeved shirt with a drawstring neck. He took a step toward me and his pants started falling down. I hid my face in my hands.

"Hidan, didn't anyone ever tell you about using belts? I have a large wall of them in there. Go pick one out and use it. They arrest people for public nudity in Konoha."

Hidan grumbled, making various noises that sounded like curse words under his breath as he stalked back into my cave. He emerged five minutes later with a thin, dark grey belt that held his pants up.

I stood up from where I was doodling in the dirt with a tiny cyclone, dusted my hands off, and towed him behind me toward the village. He trailed behind me, muttering curses and shooting me dirty looks.

"Hey, if looks could kill, I'd have died several years ago. I don't think that your glares can kill me."

"Yeah? How about I try to kill you with my scythe?"

"Well, that might work, but didn't Death over there expressly forbid killing me?"

"Well, yeah."

"Oh, by the way, did the three twerps see you when Kakuzu killed Asuma?"

"Wha? How'd you? When?"

"You're stuttering."

"You're freakin' right I'm stuttering! I didn't even know that Kakuzu killed the smoker until three days later. I wasn't there. I was getting sacrifices for Death."

"Okay. Good. That means that they won't try to kill you."

"Why do you care?"

"Because I already feel connected to you. I'll admit, it's strange, but I fell part of my soul twining with yours."

"Hey, I might not know you, but I know this- I'm not attracted to you. Anyways, I've promised Death that I'll wait for the perfect woman, and you aren't it."

"Yeah? What's your idea of the perfect woman?"

"Well, as crazy an bloodthirsty as I am, violent, strong, at least a little pretty-"

"Not a Jashinist?"

"Nah. I can always convert her later, but I need to marry her so I can keep her for myself."

We entered the village and almost immediately encountered Anko. She jumped in front of me and grabbed me in a headlock.

"Hey, pal! What say we go get dead-dog drunk and then cause some mass chaos?"

I extracted my head and caught the thoughts trailing through Hidan's head. _Oh, Death, thank you so much. I've found the girl of my dreams._ I chuckled.

"Anko, meet Hidan. Hidan, meet Anko. Anko, sorry, but what I want tonight is a game of poker. Know any good places?"

"Sure! What's your budget?"

"I don't really care. Take me to the place where I'll get the best game." Her eyes lit up and she towed me toward a small building near the Hokage's office. All three of us- Death said he'd come in a few minutes later- ducked though the door. Anko and Hidan said that they'd be watching, but I traded in my bag of several thousand ryō for their worth in chips. I held my stack up and found a free seat. I noticed the sideways looks of the other players- all males- and smirked inwardly. One by one they spoke up.

"There are several rules involved in playing poker here."

"No cheating."

"No bottom-dealing."

"No stacking the deck."

"If two people have exactly equal hands, they split the pot evenly. The two people hash out what constitutes evenly."

"Using any ninja skills is rounds for immediate, permanent eviction."

"Other than that, may Lord Luck be with you." The last person was the Hokage. I felt a vague presence at the back of my mind, fuming about being called a man. I assumed that it was Lady Luck and Tsunade wouldn't be winning.

Five cards landed in front of me and I picked them up. I was lucky- I lacked one card for a royal flush. I discarded the five of spades, and drew my final card, gaining a perfect royal flush. I pushed in five hundred chips, matching the bet of the previous person. The betting went around the table, and then people showed their hands. Another person had a royal flush, so we split the pot.

The next hand came around with slightly better cards. I had a full house right away and raised the stakes. The betting came around three times, until one of the other people finally stopped it. I won again and Tsunade gave me a dirty look.

We kept playing for several hands, then Death came in. He looked at me and winked, but I pretended to not notice. When he sat down, the person on his right had a pitiful pile of chips. As the betting rolled around, he started sweating. It reached him and he didn't have enough chips to make it, so he said, "I'll bet my shop in the marketplace." A deed floated to the pile, along with the rest of his chips. If he lost this hand, he'd be out. I purposely folded so as to not arouse suspicion about cheating. Death raised his eyebrows at me, obviously wondering what the heck was going on.

Four hours later, I was the proud owner of three swords- one odachi, one wakizashi, and one katana- free lessons until I reached expert level, four homes, several hundred thousand ryō, one ancient jutsu scroll, the respect of the Inuzukas, and the right to choose the Academy students I wanted when it came time for me to take a genin team. I kept chuckling because Death was walking beside me, mumbling about 'stupid freakin' lucky mortal jonin,' 'damn Lady Luck made me lose the bet,' and 'have to share my power.' It was really funny. Hidan and Anko walked behind us, talking quietly. I got the feeling that it was a match made in hea- hea- wait, why can't I say hea-.

"Death, why can't I say the name of the realm of peaceful death?"

His head shot up. "Whazzat? Oh. Well, when I granted you your requested boon, it made you a lesser deity of the realm of Hades. Nirvana and I have always been at odds, so anyone connected to me can't say the name of her realm or her main attributes."

"What attributes? P- p- P! Damn it! Okay, the antonyms of Impure and unholy!"

"Yup. Welcome to minor godhood. Now, don't abuse it. I'm headed back to Hades."

I walked to the smallest of my new houses. I unlocked it, confident because the owner was a bachelor, turned around, and gasped in horror. It was the filthiest sty I've ever seen. I started making some very crude noises and elected against staying there. I'd hire a couple genin teams to clean it tomor- wait, today. It was three a.m.

I walked back out, locked the door, and saw Tsume Inuzuka standing at the gate.

"Need a place to crash for the night?"

"Yeah. It looks like someone turned several wind jutsus loose in there."

"Well, that's a bachelor for you. They can't keep a place clean unless their lives depend on it. Come on, you can bunk at my house if you don't mind dogs." I followed her into the Inuzuka clan compound. As we walked through the quiet streets, I noticed her sneaking sideways glances at me. After a while, I got tired of it.

"Do I have mud on my face or something?"

"No, but you don't smell fully human."

"That's because I guess I'm not. I have a cursed seal, the final form of which turns me into a wolf-like creature. I accessed that form once, by accident. Since then, I've developed numerous lupine characteristics, such as better senses of hearing and smell. I guess it changed my scent too."

"Yeah, it did. Except for your coloring and lack of a ninkin, you could pass for an Inuzuka. Do you understand dogs?"

"I don't know. I haven't been around any since the transformation."

"Well, there's only one way to find out. Here's my home. I've got my ninkin, Kuromaru, and a few puppies here. Kuromaru can speak human, but the pups can't. Come on, Kuromaru won't bite and the pups can only nip."

We walked through the door to find the larger ninkin under siege. Five puppies of various colors were attacking him with little battle yips. As I concentrated, I could hear what they were saying.

'Go get him!'

'Yeah! Attack!'

'He doesn't stand a chance!'

'We're the most fearsome dogs in the world!'

'Bow to our might!'

I focused on how they were talking and mimicked it. 'Really? You're that fearsome? I tremble in terror.'

They broke off their attack to circle me as Tsume gaped.

'You don't smell like an Inuzuka. How come you can speak to us?'

'I guess I'm special. I don't know why I can talk to you.'

Tsume broke in. 'Why were you attacking your dad?'

'We were playing with him. We weren't trying to hurt him. Mommy Tsume, can the nice human stay?'

'If she wants to, she's welcome. Any human who can talk to you is welcome among the clan. Pups, meet Tora. Tora, meet the pups. We haven't named them yet, but we will soon. Tora, would you mind babysitting for a few hours? Kuromaru and I have a mission tomorrow and we need to sleep.'

'Sure, but where's Kiba and Hana?'

'Hana works in the vet's office across town. She has the graveyard shift, and Kiba's out on a mission for the rest of the week. I can get someone else to watch the pups until Kiba gets back, but I need someone tonight.'

'I can handle puppy sitting until Kiba gets here. I recently discovered something about henge- it isn't limited to human-to-human transformations. I can shift into a dog to watch the pups.'

'That is so awesome! Thank you so much. Pups, listen to Tora. Tora, don't be afraid to follow any canine instincts you might have when it comes to disciplining them. Come on, Kuromaru. Time for bed.'

They walked into Tsume's bedroom, closing the door. I transformed into a large, red, female dog, and the puppies glomped me.

'Aunty Tora! Aunty Tora! Tell us a story!'

'All right. A long time ago, when the world was young, there was a terrible demon in the land. The demon always killed randomly, for no reason other than its love of carnage. As it swept across the land, unleashing chaos, it caught the attention of a young Sage.

'The Sage tried to fight it and failed, but through some miracle of the gods survived. The Sage was smart and cunning, and he knew that he couldn't defeat the demon through ordinary means. The Sage worked and worked, researched and researched, until, finally, he found a scroll as old as Father Time and Mother Earth. In the scroll, it told of the only method for breaking down one horrible demon into several bad demons, making it easier for one person to fight each one.

'When the Sage finalized his plans, he went looking for the demon. Now, the demon recognized him as the only human who had ever fought him and lived, and anyone who says that demons aren't intelligent and can't hold a grudge is either a liar or completely uninformed. The demon roared his challenge at the Sage, and the Sage roared back.

'The battle was of epic proportions, because, even though the Sage had a way to destroy the demon, he still needed time to work it. The demon also had to be weakened slightly for it to work.

'When the Sage finished his preparations, he pulled out all of his tricks, including the old scroll, and, using a method lost to the mists of time, broke the one demon into nine different demons we now call the biju. Using the method on the scroll, he sealed the demon into the moon, where the cowards fight it for eternity while the brave fight it once per month. That's where we gained the saying that cowards die many times, because, no matter how many times they die in the moon, they are revived to die again.' I finished my story and found the pups sitting in rapt attention.

'That was an awesome story, Aunty Tora!'

'Yeah! Tell us another, please!'

'Sorry, pups, but it's time for sleeping now. Come on, curl up and go to sleep.' They complained a little, but I gave them a stern look and they subsided.

What woke me up in the morning was Tsume and Kuromaru waking up. I heard them stirring in the other room, sat up, and waited for them to appear. They came out of their bedroom yawning and stretching. Kuromaru gaped at the pile of sleeping puppies, asking, 'How the hell did you do that!'

'I told them a story and ordered them to go to bed.'

'But, I've told them stories! I told them to go to bed! It's not fair!'

'Life isn't fair. I guess that they obey females better than males. Tsume, any last orders?'

'Make sure no harm comes to the pups. There's human food in the fridge, dog food in the laundry room, and a yard for them to run in. If you leave the house, do it in your dog form. The rest of the clan will assume I found a new ninkin to watch the pups and won't bother you. Take the pups around the village if you think you can handle them.'

'Sure thing.' Kuromaru gave one last incredulous look at the peaceful puppies, shook his head, and followed his human out the door. I lay back down tom get some more sleep.

I woke up three hours later to the sound of the door opening. I rose on silent paws and ghosted into the shadows. An unfamiliar, threatening voice mumbled, "An Inuzuka ninkin puppy will sell for several thousand ryō on the black market, and there are five in here, with no-one to guard them. This will be easy." He walked into my line of sight and I lunged, barking, 'Puppy stealer! Puppy stealer!'

I had him pinned by the time three other Inuzukas and their dogs came into the house. The oldest looked at me and asked, 'Who are you?'

'Tsume asked me to watch the puppies until Kiba came back; I do not remember my name.'

'Fair enough. We can handle the puppy stealer now. Will you let him up?' I dug my teeth farther into his arm, then climbed off of him, giving him a contemptuous kick. I hear the scrabbling of puppy claws in the next room and went to check on my charges as the others took the intruder away. Guh, I just realized that I needed to get a request for a D-rank mission in. Freakin' _swell_. I fed the puppies and herded them out the door toward the office, keeping them in a single group. When we reached the door, I had to transform into a human to open in, so I attached chakra leashes to the necks of the five hooligans.

Everyone looked up when I opened the door. Multiple jaws dropped when they saw the five obedient Inuzuka puppies following me. I walked up to a free desk.

"Hi. I need to put in a request for a D-rank mission for a couple genin teams."

"Nature of said mission?"

"I need a building cleaned, and it's a wreck, so it's a job for two teams, and I'm not sure how many days it'll take. I'm willing to pay for a D-rank per day per genin team."

"Okay, sign here, here, here and here, write the address of the house needing cleaning, and initial here and here. I'll put in the request."

I complied, then added, "Tell the jonin senseis to put their hands on the seal at the door, say their names, the names of their students, and their purpose for being there. I'm not responsible for what happens if they try to just walk into my home." I exited the building and transported the puppies to my ramshackle new home.

When I reached the door, I pushed my chi and chakra into the outer walls, forcing them to prevent all unauthorized access, with the only one determining 'authorized' being me. As I worked my will, a seal appeared on the door, the delicate loops and swirls looking gentle and unthreatening, but, underneath, more deadly than a sharp kunai. When I finished, I turned and melted into my canine form, taking my five charges around the village. Like any puppies, the bounced all over, excited to be free, eager to explore, but wary enough of the unknown to instantly run back under my protection if threatened.

Only one person was dumb enough to threaten them. They were sniffing around the edges of a booth, not paying attention, and the owner of the shop tried to kick them, yelling, "Get away from my shop, you filthy curs!" I grabbed his leg in my teeth, growling a clear warning to 'Leave the pups alone!' Naturally, he was afraid of me and started yelling about mad dogs. I released him and trotted off. I felt his thought running toward going to the hospital to get checked out. I gave a signature doggy chuckle and guided the puppies back to the compound and the parks there.

We reached the first park and I turned them loose to play and scuffle, as long as they didn't run off or get into trouble. I felt a presence coming up behind me, turned, and saw a venerable old dog walk up to me.

'I have never seen you before.'

'No, you wouldn't have. I am a human in a transformation.'

'Ah, that explains it. Yet Tsume trusted you enough to leave the puppies with you?'

'Apparently.'

'You are favored indeed. She respects few and trusts fewer.'

'I figured as much. I consider it an honor to look after the young ones. They are precious and thus must be protected.'

'You have the true outlook of pack, strange one.'

'I know. People have asked me what I consider family. I tell them that my family is everyone I would die for, willing trade everything, including my soul for.'

'I, Kenshin, make you always welcome here, any time of the day or night. You have the soul of a true Inuzuka.'

I gave a canine bow and grin. 'I thank you for the honor. Now, if you would excuse me? I need to check on my charges.'

'Of course, but, first, please tell me your name.'

'I am called Tora.'

'A wolf in cat's clothing. Fitting, for a shinobi.'

'You speak the truth.'

I got up and wandered off, searching for the puppies. Three were digging holes industriously, but the other two were mock-wrestling like good little puppies. For several hours, I sat there watching them, basking in the peace of the day.

I led them back to the house at night, fed them, got them settled, and made them got to sleep. Then, I teleported back to my rundown house. I was astounded at the sheer progress the kids had made on it. The outside was painted and the inside, instead of looking like a tsunami had went through it, only looked like a tornado zone. It was an improvement.

Four days passed in this manner. Four long days of tending five enthusiastic, energetic puppies. When Kiba finally came, I was so glad to see him I almost kissed him. I refrained at the last moment, slightly assured that he would consider it either a threat or attack.

By the time I got to my home, I knew that the genin had worked wonders. It was clean, smelled good, and was habitable. I flopped down, only to jerk back upright when I felt Hidan come bursting in the gates of my home. I told the seal to just open the door, and he came barreling into the sitting room.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Doing a favor for a friend. Why"

"Why? WHY? I'd've been freakin' bored out of my mine except for Anko- by the way, thanks for introducing us- keeping me busy by being sadistic."

"So, you dating yet?"

"Sure, if you can call causing mass chaos and terror among puny Academy students 'dating'."

"Whatever works."

"Yeah. Hey! Quite getting me off subject. I wanna spar with you."

"Tough luck. We can spar tomorrow. Right now, I'm tired and cranky because I've been babysitting five hyperactive puppies for the last five days. Have you ever tried that?"

"No."

"Good. Don't. it's no fun after the first six hours. They get into everything, are always noisy and busy, and can't keep still for more than thirty seconds without serious pressure being placed on them. They also have the attention spans of mayflies on crack _and_ speed."

He chuckled. "Seriously? Crack _and_ speed? That sucks."

"Tell me about it! It would've been bad enough if I was human during it, but for some reason I can't fathom, I henged into a dog for the last five days. I'm sick of having fours legs and a tail."

"Poor baby. Do you want Hidan-nii to kiss it better?"

"Nah, it's go- did you just call yourself _Hidan-nii_?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh, that's rich! Wait until Death- no, wait until Anko hears about it!"

"No! Don't tell either of them! I've worked very hard for my reputation. I don't want you shattering it into a million pieces."

"I won't tell- for now. I have blackmail material for a very long time. Now, go. Leave me to sleep in peace. I'll meet you tomorrow in the forest of death. Bring Anko if you like."

"I will." He stalked out of my house, muttering about "demon in disguise", "idiot", "won't fight", "weakling", and other things, also calling into question my heritage and my mother's good name.

"Hey, insult my mother all you want, but fuck with Grampa and we'll have some serious problems."

"Like what?"

"I'll pull out the blackmail ammo early."

"Ouch. Harsh. Okay, I'll leave your Grampa alone."

He finally left my house, and I sank into a grateful, _human_, sleep.

What woke me up the next morning was the clatter of someone trying to force their way past the seal, and the hissing sizzle of lightning racing through their flesh. Not enough to kill, but enough to seriously hurt. I crawled off the couch and went to investigate.

I opened my door and found Kakashi rolling on the ground and sparking, while Kurenai and her kid watched and laughed. I sighed and gestured them inside my house.

When Kakashi could make a coherent sentence without stuttering or belching clouds of smoke, we started talking.

"What are you guys here for?"

"We came to see what happened to you. I _told_ Kakashi not to try anything with that seal, but would he listen?'

"Of course not. He's a man."

"I know! That's my thoughts. He's a big, bad, former ANBU, so can he take directions? Oh, no! He thinks he knows everything."

Kakashi cleared his through. "Um, Kurenai?"

Our heads snapped around. "What?"

He visibly cringed. "Didn't we have a purpose in coming here today?"

Kurenai's face squeezed up, trying to remember. Then, her eyes lit up. "Of course! Kakashi finally asked me to marry him."

"You said yes."

"Of course I did. Even if he's an idiot sometimes-"

"Hey!"

"I still love him. Life's so much better with him in it." Kakashi reached over and took her hand in his. I noticed the typical shinobi lack of wedding rings- they catch on things and flaunt the fact that the person has a precious person in front of enemies.

Kakashi's eyes got a faraway look. "Tora, speaking of life, I don't think Kankuro will have one anymore."

"Why?"

"Gaara's been trying his dead-level best to either destroy him or get him to admit that he lied about you. So far, he seems to be leaning toward destroy."

"Really? It's so sweet of him to defend my honor like that."

"Sweet isn't exactly the word I would use."

"Well, what would you call it?"

"Overprotective, overbearing, controlling, vindictive-"

"Okay, I get it. Oh, why did you come here today, instead of a few days ago?"

"We've been coming here every day, but today's the first time we felt your presence here."

"Ah. And you thought it was a good idea to test the effectiveness of a sleeping, exhausted, possibly injured shinobi's defenses?"

"Um, yes?"

"No. You flare your chakra politely, either while on the step or by pushing a little chakra into the seal. I consider than a polite knock."

"Okay, lesson learned, knowledge gained."

"Good. Now, I need to go meet Cherub."

"Cherub? Who's Cherub?"

"You know that guy who's been hanging around Anko for a while?"

"Yeah."

"I call him Cherub. Well, I just started to. I'm not sure of his reaction when I call it to his face."

"I wish you luck and a long life."

"Me also. Incidentally, I predict a drastic shortening of that life if you call that guy Cherub. By the way, what's his name?"

"His name's Hidan, and what are you, the one of the Seers at Delphi?"

"Who are they?"

"Future-seers. Well, good bye. You have five minutes to be out the door before the seal kicks you out."

They scrambled for the door. Well, Kakashi scrambled, Kurenai walked. I wandered toward the forest to fight Hidan- I mean Cherub.

He saw me immediately and swirled over in front of me.

"You're late."

"No, we didn't set a time."

"When you say, meet me tomorrow, I took you to mean daybreak."

"You've been waiting since daybreak?"

"Yes."

"Wow, Cherub, you've got more patience than I thought."

"What did you call me?"

"Cherub."

"Why the _flying fuck_ would you call me something like that?"

"Because your looks remind me of one."

"That's it. You're gonna DIE!"

Hidan lunged at me with his scythe outstretched. I dodged, chuckling, and he roared in rage. I caught sight of Anko hiding in the brush and dying of laughter. I also felt Death's presence at the back of my mind, ready to step forward and intercede. Hidan kept swinging, and I kept dodging. Finally, he got tired of it.

"Stand still and fight, you fuckin' air fairy!"

"Why should I?"

"Because, if you don't, I'll make your life miserable."

"How do you propose to do that?"

"I'll figure it out. Now, FIGHT ME!" He swung again and I quit laughing. He wanted a serious fight? I'd give him one.

I slashed forward, pushing up a wave of dirt in his direction. He jumped over it, giving me a dirty look.

"I said _fight_, not _have a mud war_."

"There's a difference?"

"Yes!" He kept swinging, so I guessed that this was, for him, a jutsu-less brawl. I blasted fire, and he dodged. We kept trading strikes for a few minutes, until we began to tire and accumulate cuts, scratches, and, for him, burns. I toasted his right side, and he didn't go down. That was my first indication that something was wrong. I burned his left side, and he staid upright.

"You freakin' immortal piece of shit!"

He faltered for a few seconds. "You think that highly of me?"

"It wasn't a compliment!"

"For me, it was. Thanks. What say we call this a draw? I won't be upright for much longer, and you look the same."

"Sure. Wanna go get a drink?"

"Might as well."

"Great. You coming, Anko?"

She emerged from the bushes, looking annoyed. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I could feel your chakra. It has a slight taint on it because of that cursed hickey. The taint remains in the air, there if anyone has the skills to sense it. You might wanna invest in some decent foundation to hide that mark."

"I will if you will."

"Deal."

All three of us walked off toward the village, gathering friends for a bar crawl. To my utmost surprise, Tsunade showed up. I guess she really needed a break from her duties.

Four hours of drinking, partying, and laughing later, we split up. Tsunade handed me a slip of paper before I wandered back to my home. When I got there, I fell into bed and was out like a light.

What woke me up in the morning was the bright flare of chakra through my door-seal. I hauled myself upright, gulped a drink of water, and stumbled to the door. I wrenched it open to find a grumpy, hung-over Tsunade there with Shizune standing behind her, holding the sake jar.

"Do you want to come in?"

"Yes. Please. Thank you."

They trooped into my home, taking seats on the couch.

"Do you want anything to drink? I have some wonderful plum sake." Tsunade's eyes like up while Shizune narrowed hers.

"I would love some."

"I have a bit of a hangover right now, so you'll be drinking by yourself. Does that bother you?"

"Not at all."

I grabbed the bottle and a sake saucer, carrying them to her.

"Somehow I get the feeling that this isn't just a social visit."

"What was your first clue?"

"The fact that Shizune's holding your sake jar hostage."

"It's that obvious?"

"Yeah. So, what do you need?"

"There's an Academy class graduating in a week and I want you to take a team of genin."

"Remember our agreement?"

"Not really."

"When I take a genin team, I get to choose the genin."

"Really? When did I agree to that?"

"About a week ago when you were losing spectacularly to me in a game of poker."

"Now I remember! Okay, I did say that. When do you want to pick them out?"

"Get me a list of the kids with these characteristics: Intelligent, but not book-focused, driven, no fangirls, not abusive to any of the other kids, respectful, but willing to question stupid orders, willing to work together, and able to learn. Got it?"

"Yeah. Shizune?"

"There are four genin who fill those requirements: Genki Aburame, Warai Akano, Fuki Inuzuka, and Yume Arisawa. Which do you want?"

"I want the three boys."

"Why?"

"I do not want my team dynamics getting screwed because a love triangle forms."

"That makes sense."

"Yeah."

"Well, do you have-"

"Lady Hokage, you woke me up. I would appreciate it if you left of your own accord, instead of me directing my wards to throw you out. I'll go check on the kids in a couple hours. Right now, I want to sleep for a while longer."

She raised her hands and backed toward the door. "All right, all right, I'm going. Sorry."

They left, and I slogged back to my room, taking the piece of paper with me. Flopping down on my bed, I opened the folds and looked at it.

_Torabaru Denja:_

_By order of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju, you are required to take a genin team. Whether they pass their final genin exam is not important, but you must at least try to pass them. Your genin are: Genki Aburame, Warai Akano, and Fuki Inuzuka. They graduate in one week. Please collect them any time after noon on that day. Their official designation is that of team twelve. Thank you._

_Tsunade Senju, Fifth Hokage, Konoha_

A nice, fancy leaf design was the seal on the paper. I groaned. I had to deal with three pre-teen, wannabe ninjas. Did the gods hate me?

Somewhere back in my mind, I felt the dim sensation of a yes.

One week later, I was happier about my orders. Sure, I had a genin team, but, after watching them for a week, I felt confident in their ability to pass my test and my ability to turn them into decent shinobi.

I went to collect them at precisely noon. I walked through the door into the classroom to see them sitting quietly at their desks. I felt a swell of pride rush through my heart. First, they were already friends, second, they weren't noisy, and third, they weren't brooding avengers! I had a team of nice, normal genin. Life was good.

"Team twelve, please follow me." The three got up and trekked after me. As they came onto the roof, I catalogued their appearances and scents.

Warai Akano was lanky, but on the short side. He looked like he would be better at stealth. He smelled like a pine forest at midnight- musky, sharp, and rich. His deep brown hair glinted lightly, a direct contrast to his pale blue eyes.

The Aburame boy, Genki, was tall and medium weight. He had the typical dark grey eyes and hair of the Aburame, and smelled like a termite mound- spicy and deep.

The Inuzuka- who had one of the cutest baby ninkin I have ever seen- also was almost typical of his clan, but, instead of having brown eyes, he had deep forest green. He smelled like a clean dog kennel- warm and friendly. He was the most energetic of the three. His head came up and he started sniffing when the wind shifted, blowing my scent toward him. He turned to his puppy.

'She smells different. Can you tell why?'

'She smells like a half dog, half human. It's strange. Only Alpha Tsume smalls remotely like that.'

'I know! Even Tsume doesn't smell that canine.'

I broke in. 'Boys! Sit!'

They sat, looking at me in awe and bewilderment. "How can you understand us?"

"I don't know, I just can, but it's very rude to talk about others behind- or in this case- in front of- their backs. Now, please introduce yourselves."

"Okay, I'm Fuki Inuzuka, and this is Jei. He's only three months old, so he'll get bigger! So, my favorite thing to do is play with Jei, my least favorite thing to do is clean up after him."

"I am Genki Aburame. I spend the majority of my time practicing my ninja abilities with my companions, and the least amount of time goofing off."

"I'm Warai Akano. My favorite activity is spending time with my friends, and my least favorite activity is arguing with them. What about you, sensei?"

AN- This was already written, just waiting for me to get around to posting it. On the other side of the coin, my Grandpa died this morning, so I'm not feeling very much like writing anything. Hope you enjoyed the huge chapter. It's forty-one pages.


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